Amid two years of painful wrangling over the delayed police response to the deadly 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, scrutiny has generally not centered on the role of the federal agents who finally breached the classrooms and killed Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman who had killed 19 children and two teachers in two connected classrooms. The agents, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were seen as having saved the day by responding to the school and stepping in after a 77-minute delay. But a 203-page report released on Wednesday by the agency complicated that simple narrative, finding that the border agents had been just as confused and delayed as dozens of other state and local law enforcement agents inside the school by the chaotic and mostly leaderless response, The New York Times reports. While many of the details of the police response have become widely known from previous investigations, this report includes harrowing descriptions of what the border tactical team saw as it entered the classrooms, 111 and 112, at 12:50 p.m.
The report, from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, also offered the most detailed account yet of the tense and violent moments when federal agents finally entered the classrooms and the gunman burst from a closet and began firing at them. Despite the agents’ central role in confronting and killing the gunman, the report raised questions about whether the dozens who responded had the legal authority to do so. The agents were insufficiently trained in responding to active shooter situations, the report found, and policies were unclear about when agency should interact with state and local law enforcement during such events. Official examinations of the shooting, among the deadliest in the nation’s history, have been done by the Justice Department, the Texas House of Representatives and a local grand jury. In June, the grand jury indicted the former head of the Uvalde school police department, Pete Arredondo, and a former city officer, Adrian Gonzales, for their roles in the response.
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