Police response to Texas school massacre deemed ‘lackadaisical’

At least 19 children and two teachers were slain in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting on Sunday (Jul 17) when a gunman opened fire, prompting a slew of criticism from Texas state officials.

A preliminary assessment from the state’s House of Representatives states that 376 personnel, including border guards, state police, city police, local sheriff departments, and elite forces, reacted to the Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24.

Legislators, however, claimed that because of officers’ “lackadaisical attitude” to subduing the gunman, the scene was “chaotic.”

The time between the arrival of the first officers and the death of the shooter was 73 minutes, which was deemed an “unacceptably long period of time” by the jury.

There may have been fatalities because of the lack of leadership, the report found.

Many victims died quickly after being shot, but the study acknowledges that a small number died on the way to the hospital.

In the investigation, it was said that “it is likely that some victims could have survived if they hadn’t had to wait 73 more minutes for rescue.”

Police personnel “failed to comply with their active shooter training and failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their personal safety,” according to the text, which does not implicate any specific police teams over others.

Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief, had already been called an “absurd failure” by Texas’ public safety chief, Steve McCraw.

The lawmakers in Texas claim that Arredondo, who has been suspended awaiting the outcome of the probe, “did not take his preassigned role of incident leadership” and “made analytical errors” because he did not have all the essential information.”

The report stated that no other cops were willing to help or replace him. When it came to law enforcement, “there was a general lack of enthusiasm.”

“Nobody seemed to be in charge or leading the police response to the chaotic scene.”

Members of Congress shared their findings with relatives of the victims, who have been railing against the authorities for weeks for what they perceive to be a lack of transparency in the investigation into the massacre and an attempt to hide police mistakes.

Mariano Pargas, a lieutenant in the Uvalde police department, was suspended after the article was published, according to local media.

On the day of the incident, Pargas was the city’s acting police head.

Following the publication of video from a surveillance camera obtained by local media, public criticism of Texas police soared.

Video shows the shooter coming with a semi-automatic weapon at Robb Elementary School, as well as the officers’ wait in the hallway until the gunman was finally cornered in his classroom.