New report condemns officers’ response at Uvalde

A report released Sunday followed by hours of body camera footage further highlighted the inaction of law enforcement responders as a gunman killed 19 children and 2 teachers. Officers failed to follow their active shooter training and “failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” according to the Texas House investigative committee report. The report said it was plausible that some wounded victims could have survived had they not had to wait 73 minutes for rescue, but investigators did not have medical evidence conclusively showing that police could have saved lives. The body camera footage showed Uvalde Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales, the head of the city’s SWAT team, saying, “We’ve got to get in there, he just keeps shooting.” But officers waited for a master key to a door that may not have been locked — no one ever checked to make sure.

Why didn’t officers enter the classroom? Pete Arredondo, Uvalde school district police chief, told the committee that wrote the report that he treated the shooter as a “barricaded subject” and not an active shooter because he could not see the shooter. He defended that understanding of the situation. The report also stated that although 376 law enforcement officers responded — most of them from federal and state agencies — none took control of the situation.

Dig deeper: Listen to Bonnie Pritchett’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about grill masters bringing comfort food to Uvalde.