Uvalde school shooting response was a total mess

An investigation by the Texas Parliament into the school shooting in the American town of Uvalde in which 21 people died at the end of May, states that “systematic errors” and poor leadership have led to the high death toll. Among other things, the law enforcement agencies put their own safety above saving lives. Among the 21 dead were 19 students and 2 teachers.

The police soon suffered a lot of criticism after the shooting. She would have reacted too slowly. The scathing report by a committee of the Texas Parliament presented Sunday is the most comprehensive attempt to date to establish why it took police more than an hour to stop the 18-year-old shooter.

The report concludes that “law enforcement officers have not complied with their training” when it comes to situations involving an active shooter and ” they have not put saving lives above their own safety.” The now retired police chief who worked at the school was in a corridor in the school building when the shooter was present there, buthad no radio contact with, among other things, the emergency number 911. As a result, he could not effectively lead, while this is one of his core tasks in an emergency situation.

The 77-page document further states that a total of 376 agents and employees of various law enforcement agencies rushed to the school in a chaotic manner. There is a lack of clear leadership. Also, the sense of urgency would have been insufficient.

However, the report also notes several shortcomings in the school itself. For example, it indicates that the outside fence around the school building did not stop the shooter. And there was a “deplorable culture” in which school staff did not comply with the rules on leaving interior and exterior doors open and closed. The shooter quite easily entered the school through an unlocked door.

The school building where the shooting took place will be demolished, it was recently announced. The same thing happened earlier with the school in Newton (Connecticut), in which a mass shooting killed 26 people, including 20 children. A new school was built in Newtown, and will be built in Uvalde.