A Texas legislators' probe of the Uvalde school shooting that left 21 dead blamed "systemic failures" and poor leadership for contributing to the death toll, a report released on Sunday found.
The Texas House of Representatives committee investigation marked the most exhaustive attempt so far to determine why it took more than an hour for police and other officers to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
The bottom line, the report found, is that "law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety."
The 77-page report said 376 law enforcement officers rushed to the school in a chaotic scene marked by a lack of clear leadership and sufficient urgency.
In this still image from body camera footage, police deploy in a hallway after Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, U.S., May 24, 2022. Ramos shot and killed 19 children and two teachers. /Reuters
"Other than the attacker, the committee did not find any 'villains' in the course of its investigation," the report stated. "Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision-making."
"The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life, as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon."
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that the city had placed Lieutenant Mariano Pargas, who was the acting city police chief on the day of the shooting, on administrative leave.
On Sunday, McLaughlin released body camera footage from some of the city police officers who responded to the shooting. The body cam footage of one of the officers, who were among the first to enter the school just a few minutes after the gunman had fired over 100 rounds inside the classrooms, showed the chaos.
Privacy barriers and bike racks maintain a perimeter at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School after a video was released showing the May shooting inside the school in Uvalde, Texas, U.S., July 13, 2022. /Reuters
The officer approached a classroom door and was grazed by one of the gunman's shots. He asked fellow officers in the hallway if he was bleeding, then momentarily exited the school.
The report described the "shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement" and "an overall lackadaisical approach" by the authorities.
Part of that could be explained by communication failures.
Children inside the classrooms where the killing took place called 911 and pleaded for help, but the report said that nobody ensured that the responders making key decisions inside the building knew about those emergency calls or "received information that students and teachers had survived the initial burst of gunfire."
(With input from Reuters)