Tweet
I'm shocked. SHOCKED, I say!!!
DOJ’s Uvalde report finds systemic failures in school shooting response
Reminder - Columbine is the pivot point.
DOJ’s Uvalde report finds systemic failures in school shooting response
A lack of preparation, communication and initiative led Texas law enforcement officers to bungle their response to a brutal 2022 school shooting, a new investigation from the Justice Department has found.
The investigation was launched in 2022 to answer a question that haunted the people of Uvalde, Texas — and the nation as a whole — long before the bodies had cooled or the blood had been cleaned from the walls and floors of Robb Elementary School.
That question, which the Justice Department has spent more than two years confronting, is easily expressed but viciously contentious: What took so long? Why did nearly 400 members of the Uvalde Police Department spend 77 minutes standing around outside the school while a gunman stalked the halls, killing 19 children and two teachers?
The answer, the DOJ told reporters on Thursday: A lack of “urgency” in setting up a command post outside the school, and a comprehensive failure to identify the situation.
That led to a series of “cascading failures” and unnecessary deaths within the school while hundreds of police officers waited outside — acting decisively only to arrest anguished parents who tried to enter the school themselves.
Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Uvalde for the unveiling of the DOJ report.
In a statement, Garland called out the “failure” of the local police response at Robb Elementary, saying it was a matter of failed “leadership, training, and policies.”
Due to these errors, Garland added, “33 students and three of their teachers — many of whom had been shot — were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside.”
The investigation was launched in 2022 to answer a question that haunted the people of Uvalde, Texas — and the nation as a whole — long before the bodies had cooled or the blood had been cleaned from the walls and floors of Robb Elementary School.
That question, which the Justice Department has spent more than two years confronting, is easily expressed but viciously contentious: What took so long? Why did nearly 400 members of the Uvalde Police Department spend 77 minutes standing around outside the school while a gunman stalked the halls, killing 19 children and two teachers?
The answer, the DOJ told reporters on Thursday: A lack of “urgency” in setting up a command post outside the school, and a comprehensive failure to identify the situation.
That led to a series of “cascading failures” and unnecessary deaths within the school while hundreds of police officers waited outside — acting decisively only to arrest anguished parents who tried to enter the school themselves.
Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Uvalde for the unveiling of the DOJ report.
In a statement, Garland called out the “failure” of the local police response at Robb Elementary, saying it was a matter of failed “leadership, training, and policies.”
Due to these errors, Garland added, “33 students and three of their teachers — many of whom had been shot — were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside.”
Reminder - Columbine is the pivot point.
- PRIOR to Columbine, police responding to a school shooting were to await backup, then enter the building in a 3 or 4 man diamond formation, working toward the threat, but assisting wounded students or staff on the way in.
- AFTER Columbine, the doctrine totally changed - ANY officer was expected to make immediate entry, NOT awaiting backup, bypassing any wounded persons, and neutralizing the threat as quickly as possible.
The cops wasted precious time while victims were bleeding to death!
Comment