Uvalde City Council says all 25 city officers who responded to school massacre will be investigated



The Uvalde City Council said Tuesday it will investigate every city police officer who responded to the shooting massacre at Robb Elementary School on May 24.

Jesse Prado, a former Austin police detective, has been appointed to lead the investigations, the city council announced. He will conduct individual interviews with the 25 officers on the police force who went to the shooting scene, CNN reported.

This latest action from the city council comes after a legislative report identified "systemic failures and egregious poor decision making" in response to the attacker who killed 19 children and two teachers while hundreds of responding officers failed to stop the gunman.

"This investigation is looking at every single officer and what his actions — what he did, what our policy says — and basically, we're gonna get a report on everybody," Councilman Ernest "Chip" King III said, according to CNN.

King added that the city "will act" on Prado's report and hold accountable those responsible for the failed police response.

"He's gonna be conducting the investigation and we're gonna let the investigation go, see what he determines, but everybody that's Uvalde PD that was there will be held accountable for their actions," he said.

A Texas House investigation condemned what the lawmakers called "an overall lackadaisical approach" by federal, state, and local authorities to the shooting. There were 376 responding law enforcement officers at Robb Elementary School, yet the report found that it took authorities 77 minutes from the time the gunman entered the school building to breach the classroom he had occupied and neutralize him.

The report also said that numerous law enforcement officials abandoned police protocol and training for active shooter situations.

"They failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety," the report said.

The Uvalde City Council has already placed Lt. Mariano Pargas, who was the police department's acting chief on the day of the massacre, on administrative leave pending an investigation into whether he should have assumed command.

Additionally, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has put its chief of police, Pete Arredondo, on administrative leave and suspended Robb Elementary School principal Mandy Gutierrez, who was found to have been aware of security issues with improperly locking doors but failed to act.

Some members of the public who attended the city council meeting called for all the responding city officers to be suspended or placed on desk duty, CNN reported.

"I know parents want answers. Nobody wants to give those answers more than I do on the city council," Councilman Hector R. Luevano told attendees.

"I'm a former police officer, so I have some insight into actions that need to be taken," he added. "I can assure the families in this community that I'm going to do everything within my power as a member of this council to give you the answers that you need to hear."

"If there's any officer that's in violation of any policy or procedure that they needed to act on and did not and might have caused these children to die, these teachers to die, I can assure you, heads are going to roll," Luevano said.

The city council announced the investigator should complete his work within two months, at which time Prado will make recommendations on potential disciplinary actions to the council.

Uvalde police never tried to open doors to classrooms where shooter was, officer passed up shooting gunman before he entered school: Reports



New reports reveal that a Uvalde police officer passed up an opportunity to open fire on the Texas school shooter and that law enforcement never tried to open the classroom door where the gunman was.

The New York Times reported that a Uvalde police officer could have shot Salvador Ramos before he entered Robb Elementary School.

"At least two law enforcement cars arrived in close succession at the school," according to the New York Times. "One was driven by an officer from the small police force that patrols Uvalde’s schools. Another arrived less than a minute later, at 11:32 a.m., with officers from the Uvalde Police Department."

At the time, the gunman was reportedly outside the school – firing into the building and toward a funeral home. Responding officers believed the shooter was firing at them, according to Chief Deputy Sheriff Ricardo Rios of Zavala County.

The two officers took cover behind a police cruiser.

"They wanted to return fire, he said, but held off," the Times stated, adding that one of the officers was armed with a long gun.

Rios said, "I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you shoot? Why didn’t you engage?’ And that’s when he told me about the background. According to the officers, they didn’t engage back because in the background there was kids playing and they were scared of hitting the kids."

The opportunity to take out the shooter purportedly only had a window of a few seconds.

Rios understood the decision, and added, "The Ranger who took my statement even said: 'It's come to the point where we’re second-guessing ourselves shooting somebody because we’re scared. Every bullet has our names.'"

A report from the San Antonio Express-News claimed that police officers never attempted to open the doors at the Robb Elementary School – where the shooter was.

"Surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open a door to two classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in the 77 minutes between the time a gunman entered the rooms and massacred 21 people and officers finally breached the door and killed him," the San Antonio Express-News reported, citing a law enforcement source involved in the investigation. "Investigators believe the 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at the school on May 24 could not have locked the door to the connected classrooms from the inside."

That source allegedly said that police may have assumed that the school doors were locked. However, the doors are reportedly only locked or unlocked from the outside.

The report claimed that police officers could have tried to open doors instead of attempting to locate keys to gain entry.

Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo allegedly tried to obtain keys to open the school doors.

The Texas Tribune previously reported, "The extrication tools never materialized, but Arredondo had also asked for keys that could open the door. Eventually, a janitor provided six keys. Arredondo tried each on a door adjacent to the room where the gunman was, but it didn’t open."

The San Antonio Express-News reported, "Regardless, officers had access the entire time to a 'halligan' a crowbar-like tool that could have opened the door to the classrooms even if it was locked, the source said."

The Times added, "Ramos entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. that day through an exterior door that a teacher had pulled shut but that didn’t lock automatically as it was supposed to, indicating another malfunction in door locks at the school."

The San Antonio Express-News noted, "Police finally breached the door to classroom 111 and killed Ramos at 12:50 p.m. Whether the door was unlocked the entire time remains under investigation."

'I'm going in there!': Uvalde mother handcuffed by cops describes running into school during shooting, says police tried to silence her from telling her story



A Texas mother who defied Uvalde police officers and ran into the school during the mass shooting to save her children has come forward to tell her story despite alleged threats by law enforcement for her not to speak to the media.

On the morning of May 24, Angeli Gomez went to Robb Elementary School to see her kids' graduation ceremonies. At first, Gomez didn't want to take photos with her two sons because she was dusty from working at a farm earlier in the day. She reluctantly took a photo with her two boys and then went back to work.

Shortly after returning to the farm, Gomez received an urgent phone call from her mother informing her that there was a shooting at her sons' school. She got in her car and said she drove 100 mph to the school.

Gomez described the chaotic scene at Robb Elementary School after a shooter went on a deadly rampage.

"Right away as I parked, U.S. Marshals started coming toward my car saying that I wasn't allowed to be parked there," Gomez told CBS News.

"And he said, 'Well, we're gonna have to arrest you because you're being very uncooperative,'" the Uvalde mother explained. "I said, 'Well, you're gonna have to arrest me because I'm going in there. And I'm telling you right now, I don't see none of y'all in there. Y'all are standing with snipers and y'all are far away. If y'all don't go to go in there, I'm going in there.' He immediately put me in cuffs."

Immediately after the handcuffs were removed from Gomez, she sprinted toward the school. She got her one son out of his classroom.

The courageous mother then ran to get her second child, but was stopped by police.

She explained, "So I start yelling and I'm being uncooperative, and I'm like, 'Well, y'all ain't doing s**t! What are y'all doing? Y'all ain't doing s**t!.'"

Gomez said the teacher wouldn't open the door to the classroom where her son was and she was escorted out by police. However, Gomez ran back when she saw that her son's classroom was being evacuated.

"There was not one officer inside the school when I ran to my second son's classroom," Gomez exclaimed.

Gomez said she heard gunshots being fired during the evacuation and that it was still an active shooting situation.

"They could have saved many more lives," Gomez said as she broke into tears. "They could have gone into that classroom – and maybe two or three would have been gone – but they could have saved the whole class. They could have done something."

"If anything, they were being more aggressive on us parents that were willing to go in there," Gomez said of Ulvade police.

She told a police officer, "If anything, I need you to go in there with me to go protect my kids."

Gomez said law enforcement was more concerned with parents than going into the school.

Gomez was reluctant to speak to the media recently because she said that law enforcement threatened her. The Uvalde mother claimed that a police officer called her and told her that her probation – from a decade-old charge – could be violated if she continued to talk to the media. Gomez only gave the interview after a judge informed her that she wouldn't be punished for speaking to the media.

The Uvalde shooting ended with 19 children and two teachers dead.

Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo has been widely criticized for his team not responding to the shooting until over an hour after the carnage began.

Arredondo did not have his police radio with him when he arrived at the school, which may have caused a delay in communicating with police dispatchers, according to the New York Times.

Mom who ran into school during Uvalde, Texas shooting discusses moments inside www.youtube.com

NYC Mayor Eric Adams says NYPD would not repeat Uvalde police mistakes during school shooting



New York City Mayor Eric Adams asserted Tuesday that in a school shooting event in his city, NYPD officers and other first responders would not hesitate to intervene, in contrast to the reported police response to the deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week.

"That is not going to happen in New York. We go in with an active shooter," Adams said Tuesday morning on "Morning Joe."

"Not only would the police go in with an active shooter, but the FDNY, EMS, they’re trained to go in with an active shooter,” he continued. “It appears as though this was treated more like a barricaded armed person or a hostage negotiation scenario instead of an active shooter."

Adams also said that he intended to reach out to Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin to discuss what local leaders can do to address gun violence.

“I’m going to call him today, because this is a mayors’ battle,” Adams said. "Mayors are being impacted by that.'

Police in Uvalde, Texas, have faced mounting criticism over their response to last week's shooting at Robb Elementary School, where 19 children and two teachers were murdered by a gunman.

At a press conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Chief Steven McCraw told reporters that during the shooting, police had come to believe the gunman had barricaded himself in a classroom and was no longer an active shooter threat. Several officers had waited for backup in the school hallway as children were trapped in the classroom with the gunman.

Some of the children were speaking with police dispatchers over the phone and begging for police to rescue them. Instead, officers waited nearly an hour before the classroom was breached and the gunman incapacitated.

“Obviously, based on the information we have, there were children in that classroom that were still at risk,” McCraw said Friday. "From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period.”

ABC News reported Monday that the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force have ceased to cooperate with the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation into the massacre. The decision to end cooperation with the investigation came shortly after McCraw said that police had made the "wrong decision," ABC News reported.

The Biden administration announced Sunday that the Department of Justice will open an investigation into the police response in Uvalde, in response to a request from Mayor McLaughlin. The department said the review "will be fair, transparent, and independent."

“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,” the Justice Department said.

22 dead in mass shooting at Texas elementary school, including 18 students and 3 teachers



At least fifteen were killed in a mass shooting event at a Texas elementary school according to Gov. Greg Abbott, including 14 children and one teacher.

The harrowing incident unfolded on Tuesday afternoon at Robb Elementary School in the small city of Uvalde, which lies about 80 miles west of San Antonio.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told Fox News that the shooting began about a block away from Robb Elementary but that the shooter then ran into the school. Another report said that the suspect had barricaded himself inside.

An active shooter situation was reported and the school went into lockdown until law enforcement authorities were able to subdue the suspect about an hour later.

There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared.

The rest of the district is under a Secure Status.
— Uvalde CISD (@Uvalde_CISD) May 24, 2022

A spokesperson from Uvalde Memorial Hospital confirmed to CNN that two of the children had died and that they had received 13 children with various injuries from the shooting.

The hospital said a 45-year-old was also being treated for being grazed by a bullet.

One business owner near the school told 1200 News Radio that he witnessed the suspect in a shootout with law enforcement officials — including the Border Patrol. He said he also saw children being evacuated from the school through the windows.

Officials later said the suspect was an 18-year-old male and that he had died. Multiple law enforcement officials said that police were trying to apprehend a murder suspect when he ran into the elementary school.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Here's a local news report about the incident:

Active shooter situation at an elementary school in Uvalde; shooter in custody, police saywww.youtube.com