Uvalde School Shooting: DOJ report released, finds 'failures,' 'lack of urgency' in response

DALLAS - Police officials who responded to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, "demonstrated no urgency" in setting up a command post and failed to treat the killings as an active shooter situation, according to a Justice Department report released Thursday that identifies "cascading failures" in law enforcement’s handling of one of the deadliest massacres at a school in American history.

The Justice Department report, the most comprehensive federal accounting of the haphazard police response to the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 students and two teachers, identifies a vast array of problems from failed communication and leadership to inadequate technology and training that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have, even as terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and agonized parents begged officers to go in.

"I told the families gathered last night what I hope is clear among the hundreds of pages and thousands of details in this report: Their loved ones deserved better," Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference in Uvalde on Thursday after briefing family members on the Justice Department’s findings.

Even for a mass shooting that has already been the subject of intense scrutiny and in-depth examinations, the nearly 600-page Justice Department report adds to the public understanding of how police in Uvalde failed to stop the attack.

One expert said that while there have been previous reports examining Uvalde, the DOJ has a lot of technical law enforcement expertise and resources, which led to this massive report.

"The law enforcement response to the shooting at Robb Elementary was a failure," Garland said.

The roughly 600-page report from the Department of Justice breaks down the array of failures by law enforcement in the shooting.

The report underscores how police made a costly error in assuming that the shooter was barricaded, or otherwise contained or dead, even as he continued to fire shots. That mistaken "mindset permeated throughout much of the incident response" as police, rather than rushing inside the classrooms to end the carnage, waited nearly an hour to confront the gunman in what the report called a costly "lack of urgency."

"The victims and survivors should have never been trapped with that shooter for more than an hour as they waited for their rescue," said Garland.

The gunman, Salvador Ramos, was killed roughly 77 minutes after police arrived on the scene, when a tactical team led by the Border Patrol eventually went into the classroom to take him down.

Garland said law enforcement failures contributed to the loss of life.

"Had law enforcement agencies followed generally accepted practices in an active shooter situation, and gone right after the shooter to stop him, lives would have been saved and people would have survived," he said.

Uvalde school district officers arrived within three minutes of Ramos’ arrival at the school. The report says when the 11 responding officers heard gunfire, five ran toward the classroom while, "The other six FOS [first on scene] did not advance down the hallway, including UPD Acting Chief Mariano Pargas."

As officers approached, Ramos fired from inside the classroom. Two officers were hit by shrapnel and police retreated to take cover.

"Within minutes of arriving inside the school, officials on scene transitioned from treating the scene as an active shooter to treating the shooter as a barricaded subject. This was the most significant failure," said Garland.

The DOJ findings also point out the numerous signs ignored during roughly 77 minutes after police arrived on the scene where there was still an active shooter.

"They were still waiting as broadcasts went out on officer radios that a student trapped inside room 111 called 911 at 12:10 p.m. that the student was in a room full of victims. That student stayed on the phone with 911 for 16 minutes," Garland said.

The 376 officers at the scene included state police, Uvalde police, school officers, and U.S. Border Patrol agents. A tactical team led by the Border Patrol eventually went into the classroom to take down the gunman.

The federal report also details well-documented communication issues officials say hindered the response, including then-school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, discarding his radios on arrival because he thought they were unnecessary.

Although Arredondo tried to communicate by phone with officers elsewhere in the school hallway, he told them not to enter the classrooms "because he appeared to determine that other victims should first be removed from nearby classrooms to prevent further injury."

Police also erred by failing to urgently establish a centralized command post, creating confusion among officers and even first responders, the federal report said.

Alex Del Carmen is a criminologist at Tarleton State University who has trained thousands of law enforcement officers.

"First of all, I think it's a sad reminder of what happened on that day," he said.

He said the report shows the leadership matters a great deal.

"For this chief, to get out of his police car without a radio, for him not to be familiar with the fact that the classroom may have been unlocked. And for him not to have, at some point, someone regarded this scenario as being, somebody barricading himself, in the room, which really changes the scenario for law enforcement," he added.

The report also points out leaders with other agencies on scene could have acted, finding… "no leader effectively questioned the decisions and lack of urgency of UCISD PD Chief Arredondo and UPD Acting Chief Pargas."

Del Carmen said it also highlights the need for all law enforcement to have active shooter training and to practice that training alongside other agencies.

"There were 400 people outside that classroom, all of them armed, and some of them trained and some of them trained well, but there was no communication or coordination among them," Del Carmen said. "And so what that means is they didn't know how to work with each other."

The report includes a series of comments by terrified children taken from a 911 call, including: "Help!" "Help!" "Help!" "I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead."

By that point, the students and their teachers had been trapped in classrooms with the shooter for 37 minutes, and the call lasted for 27 minutes. Even though law enforcement officials were in the hallway and just outside the classrooms, it would be another 13 minutes after the call ended before the survivors were rescued.

Garland also brought up gun control, pointing to the AR-style rifles, magazines and ammunition the shooter purchased days earlier, with no apparent violation of state or federal gun laws.

"Our children deserve better than to grow up in a country where an 18-year-old has easy access to a weapon that belongs on the battlefield," he said.

The DOJ is not bringing any criminal charges. Garland said their task was to do a report. He said it is up to the local district attorney to decide if the failures were criminal.

The Uvalde County district attorney is leading a separate criminal investigation into the law enforcement response.

She has not released any details about the investigation, what charges she might be considering, or when she expects to take the case to a grand jury.

At least five officers have lost their jobs, including two Texas Department of Public Safety officers and Arredondo, who was the on-site commander during the attack.

Garland traveled to Uvalde on Wednesday ahead of the report’s release.

He visited murals of the victims that have been painted around the center of town.

He and other Justice Department officials also privately briefed family members at a community center before the report’s release to the public.

The critical incident review from the DOJ outlined more than 50 recommendations, with some of them already implemented in Uvalde and statewide.

Garland was asked what he thinks is the most important recommendation.

"The most significant thing for law enforcement to do is active shooter training," he replied.

Garland is urging agencies to train together, meaning different departments. The goal is so if a mass shooting happens in the future there will be a clear line of communication and a command structure.

Department of Justice Report

Families of victims speak

Family members of victims spoke after the Attorney General, calling for changes to gun laws and urging local and state authorities to move forward with prosecutions.

"Robb Elementary began the day an 18-year-old was able to purchase an AR-15," said Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of 10-year-old Lexi Rubio, who was killed in the shooting. "I hope that failures end today and local officials do what wasn't done that day, do right by the victims and survivors of Robb Elementary."

A lawyer representing most of the families also criticized law enforcement procedure and once again directed attention to access to weapons.

"These families didn't need a 400 or 500-page report to learn that law enforcement failed in a large way," said attorney Josh Koskoff. "They were scared because they are human beings, and they were scared of getting killed. They waited around while someone brave enough was going to intervene. This 18-year-old kid was able to walk into a store down the street and acquire a military weapon."

"I hope that the failures end today and that local officials do what wasn’t done that day," Mata-Rubio said.

"Because the DOJ stamp is on there, maybe y’all will start taking us seriously now," said Brett Cross, the father of Uziyah Garcia.

Many family members, and their attorney, continue to push for accountability.

They have repeatedly raised transparency concerns. 

"We have nothing left but to fight for them," said Veronica Mata, Tess Mata’s mother.

They’re not alone. A group of media outlets are suing Texas DPS to release its investigative file. 

A judge ordered the release, but it’s under appeal. 

Texas DPS told FOX 4 it "does not discuss pending litigation."

"Literally, hundreds of thousands of documents, photos and interviews," Haynes Boone Media Law partner Laura Prather said. "Hopefully, DPS will go ahead and hand over the information. If not, we’re going to go through a long court fight."

Family members had not had an opportunity to digest all the contents of the DOJ report before Thursday’s press conference. 

But they said they do not need a report to confirm their beliefs that there were massive failures within law enforcement.

"Why didn’t they need that? Because they were there. Some had AR-15’s pointed at them as they desperately tried to help when law enforcement wouldn’t," Koskoff said.

It’s still unclear if anyone in law enforcement will be criminally charged for actions, or a lack thereof, at Robb Elementary.

The families of victims continue to call out Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell.

"Because we know that she has not done a damn thing and we refuse to accept that. Do your job," Cross said.

The DA maintains that her office is continuing an independent review.

"Do right by the victims and survivors of Robb Elementary. Terminations. Criminal prosecutions," Mata-Rubio added.

Garland declined to give an opinion on if local criminal charges should be filed. He said there’s no federal jurisdiction.

Uvalde School Shooting

There were 19 students and two teachers killed on May 24, 2022, making the Uvalde mass shooting the deadliest at a U.S. grade school since Sandy Hook almost a decade before, and the deadliest in Texas history. There were also 16 people injured in the shooting.

Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman, was later killed in a shootout with law enforcement at the scene. 

On the morning of May 24, 2022, the gunman reportedly shot his grandmother in the face at their home, then drove to the school and crashed his pickup truck into a concrete ditch behind the school.

Two funeral attendants at the Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home across the street told authorities they had witnessed the crash and walked towards it, seeing a man dressed in all black beside the passenger door. 

The pair retreated when they saw the man, later identified as Ramos, putting a magazine into a rifle. Ramos then fired multiple times at them, according to authorities.

The gunman then entered the school through a door that hadn't locked when a teacher pulled it shut. He entered a classroom with a broken door lock and then began firing into rooms 111 and 112, shooting more than 100 rounds. Students inside the classrooms called 911 multiple times asking for police to respond.

Authorities originally released a timeline of events, saying that nearly 20 officers were in the hallway outside for more than 45 minutes before a master key was used to open the door and officers confronted and killed the gunman. However, the Texas House and Senate investigations and committee hearings later revealed a different version of events.

It took 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 8 seconds from when police made entry into the school to the time they confronted the gunman and killed him, according to a timed DPS log released in June 2022.

Uvalde School Shooting Victims

19 Robb Elementary students were killed in the shooting.

• Xavier Javier Lopez, 10
• Amerie Jo Garza, 10
• Uziyah Garcia, 8
• Rojelio Torres, 10
• Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10
• Nevaeh Bravo, 10
• Makenna Lee Elrod, 10
• Eliahana 'Elijah Cruz' Torres, 10
• Eliana 'Ellie' Garcia, 9
• Alithia Ramirez, 10
• Jacklyn "Jackie" Cazares, 9
• Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10
• Jailah Nicole Silguero, 11
• Jose Flores Jr, 10
• Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio, 10
• Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10
• Tess "Tessy" Marie Mata, 10
• Maranda Gail Mathis, 11
• Layla Salazar, 10

Fourth-grade co-teachers 48-year-old Irma Garcia and 44-year-old Eva Mireles were also killed. Family members said at the time both died trying to protect their students.

Uvalde School Shooting Investigation

The police response sparked outrage and investigations for months following the shooting, including from the Texas Legislature, the Justice Department, and Congress.

Texas State University's Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center released an initial report in July 2022, which alleged there were several missed opportunities to engage or stop the gunman before he entered the school.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin later disputed the report, saying that no Uvalde police officer saw the gunman prior to him entering the school or had any opportunity to take a shot at him. 

The week after the shooting, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan established an investigative committee to look into what happened in Uvalde. The three committee members were tasked with collecting and analyzing evidence from law enforcement, making comprehensive findings, and reporting their conclusions.

The committee released an initial 77-page report the following month, citing "systemic failures" that created a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman was killed. The report was also the first to criticize not only local authorities, but state and federal law enforcement for the "bewildering inaction" of officers on scene. 

The report followed weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and law enforcement.

The report also sparked an internal review by Texas DPS into the actions of state police as its findings put more than 90 state troopers at the school during the shooting. 

Before this, Texas DPS director Steve McCraw called the law enforcement response an "abject failure," but placed more of the blame on then-Uvalde CISD police chief Pete Arredondo, who he described as the incident commander. According to the Texas House report, Uvalde CISD's own active shooter plan also identified Arredondo as the incident commander.

Arredondo later told the Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the person in charge, but rather a frontline first responder and had assumed someone else had taken control. He also stated at the time that he had intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios.

Acacia Coronado, Lindsay Whitehurst and Jake Bleiberg from the Associated Press contributed to this report.