This past Sunday, the Department of Justice stated that it is going to be launching a probe into the failed response to the shooting event this past Tuesday, that resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers, made by the police forces in Uvalde, Texas.
This investigation was asked for by Don McLaughlin, the Mayor of Uvalde, because of an increasing amount of evidence that police forces hesitated to do their jobs and go into the Robb Elementary School classroom as the 18-year-old gunman continued to open fire. Local police forces have been entirely unable to explain exactly why they held back for well over an hour and a half before attempting to enter the building.
“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events” stated Anthony Coley, a spokesman for the Department of Justice. “The review will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing.”
Good. DOJ to review police response to Uvalde shooting https://t.co/6TZ10sYUqN
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 29, 2022
“As with prior Justice Department after-action reviews of mass shootings and other critical incidents, this assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent. The Justice Department will publish a report with its findings at the conclusion of its review.”
The gunman was finally taken down when a small group of agents from the Border Patrol rushed to the scene and ignored the orders from the local police and took matters into their own hands. Officials with the Uvalde police have been entirely unable to actually answer why they made the choice to not breach the school sooner, especially as many of the still trapped students inside were making repeated calls to 911 to beg for rescue.
Lt. Christ Olivarez, the spokesman for the Uvalde Police, stated to CNN this past Thursday that Police forces were already inside the school, but did not choose to hunt down the gunman because of a fear for their own safety.
“If they proceeded any further not knowing where this suspect was at, they could have been shot,” claimed Olivarez. “They could have been killed, and at that point, that gunman would have had the opportunity to kill other people inside that school.”
Shocking no one, that answer has not helped the department’s case, especially when you take into account the 911 call logs which help establish a timeline that highlighted terrified fourth grades pleading for their lives as the ones supposed to protect them cowered.