A new U.S. Justice Department investigation found that a near-total breakdown in policing protocols hindered the response to the 2022 Uvalde, Tex., school shooting that left 21 people dead and that the gravest error was the reluctance of officials to confront the killer in the first few minutes of the attack. DOJ blamed “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training” for the delayed, passive law enforcement response that allowed an 18-year-old gunman with a semiautomatic rifle to remain inside a pair of connected Robb Elementary School classrooms for 77 minutes before he was confronted and killed. The “most significant failure,” DOJ said, was officials' decision to classify the case as a barricaded standoff rather than an “active-shooter” scenario, which would have demanded instant, aggressive action regardless of the danger to those responding or the lack of weapons to confront the gunman, the New York Times reports.
The nearly 600-page report mirrors the conclusions of a state investigation released last July. The federal report, compiled from 260 interviews and nearly 15,000 documents and videos, is the most comprehensive assessment of a killing spree that helped spur passage of new federal gun control legislation and continues to haunt a community traumatized by the slaughter and the inadequate police response. Some families of those killed and wounded had hoped the department would bring federal criminal charges against any local officials found to be responsible for the confused and ineffective response. The department offered a list of recommendations. They included requiring adherence to guidelines, created in the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine school shooting, that call for neutralizing the gunman immediately in any situation where an active shooter might be present.“The victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School deserved better,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
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