Uvalde school shooting: Report finds ‘systemic failures’ in police response

Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a US primary school that left 21 people dead but “systemic failures” created a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman was finally confronted and killed, investigators have found.

The nearly 80-page report obtained by multiple media outlets is the first to criticise both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in Uvalde, Texas, for the inaction at Robb Elementary School.

The report was written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives and released to family members on Sunday.

The findings are the most complete account yet of the May 24th massacre in South Texas and the hesitant and haphazard response by heavily armed law enforcement as a gunman fired inside a fourth-grade classroom.

Dream of a left-wing government slipping away and not just because of Sinn Féin slump

---

Exhausted, dominated by technology and broke: Sign of the Times survey is all bad news

---

Brianna Parkins: What’s infuriating about neurotypicals? Here’s a list

---

Many apprentices are now on higher salaries than college graduates. Is snobbery around ‘earn and learn’ options fading?

---

“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritise saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report said.

The gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building, and it is “almost certain” that 100 shots came before any officer entered, the report stated.

According to the report, 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school. The overwhelming majority of those who responded were federal and state law enforcement. This included nearly 150 US Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.

“Other than the attacker, the committee did not find any ‘villains’ in the course of its investigation,” the report said.

“There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision-making.”

The report noted that many of the hundreds of law enforcement responders who rushed to the school were better trained and equipped than the school district police — which the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police force, previously faulted for not going into the room sooner.

“In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,” the report stated.

“It’s a joke. They’re a joke. They’ve got no business wearing a badge. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazer, said on Sunday.

The report comes after weeks of conflicting and inaccurate statements from authorities about why law enforcement waited so long to confront the gunman, and follows weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people who were at the scene.

The report is the result of one of several investigations into the shooting, including another led by the Justice Department. — AP