Open in full screen mode Small crosses with the names of the victims on a memorial outside the Robb Elementary School a few days after the shooting. Agence France-Presse It took police officers responding to a shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, an interminable 77 minutes to neutralize the shooter. The US Department of Justice deplored in a report on Thursday a “cascade of failures” in the response of law enforcement. On May 24, 2022, at 11:33 a.m., a young man just of age, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, burst into an elementary school in this small, quiet Texas town, killing 19 children aged 9 to 10 and two teachers aged 44 and 48. The department team which led the investigation, launched at the request of the mayor of Uvalde in the days that followed, defined several critical failures before, during and after the shooting, according to her report of more than 550 pages, published Thursday. She points to a cascade of failures of command, decision-making, tactics, policy and training that contributed to these failures. 77 minutes after the arrival of the first police officers and after 45 shots from the shooter, he was killed, Justice Secretary Merrick Garland summarized during the # x27; a press conference in Uvalde at midday, devoted to this report. Loading in progress ELSEWHERE ON INFO: Trump and his allies threaten to bury US aid to Ukraine A few minutes after arriving inside the school, the officers switched from dealing with a shooter situation to that of a shooter x27;a madman. This is the most consequential failure. A quote from Merrick Garland, Secretary of Justice Due to this change in posture, for more than an hour injured and frightened students and teachers remained trapped with the suspect in two classrooms while waiting for the rescue, recalled Merrick Garland. Following the killing, the delay in police intervention to stop the massacre had caused anger and incomprehension, with the 19 officers on site awaiting the onslaught. x27;a specialized unit. And this, while the police had received numerous calls from people in affected classrooms, including one from a child pleading: Please send the police now. Our children deserve better than to grow up in a country or an 18 year old can have easy access to a weapon that belongs on the battlefield. A quote from Merrick Garland, Secretary of Justice No police department or community can be certain that what happened here, or in Newtown, or in Parkland, or at Columbine, will not happen back home. This is our reality, added the Deputy Secretary of Justice, Vanita Gupta, in reference to killings in educational establishments which traumatized the country. This report offers 273 recommendations to address it, she said. It was produced from 260 interviews and the analysis of more than 14,100 documents, according to the secretariat. Democratic President Joe Biden responded in a statement by once again urging an end to the epidemic of gun violence.
Trump and his allies threaten to bury American aid to Ukraine
Surveillance camera footage shows police responding to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. They hesitated and waited nearly 80 minutes before neutralizing the shooter.
He pressed Congress, including the Republicans control one of the two chambers, to pass common-sense laws to prevent these killings, pleading for the establishment of systematic background checks on arms buyers and ;ban on assault rifles.
Adrian Alonzo,'uncle of&# x27;one of the victims, Eliahna Ellie Amyah Garcia, nine years old, told AFP that she had not learned much from this report and said she hoped that those responsible would be held accountable for their actions, criminal prosecution or sanctions.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, who lost her daughter Alexandria Lexi Aniyah Rubio, 10 years, in the tragedy, also indicated that he wanted dismissals and indictments.
In 2022, a commission of& #x27;Texas parliamentary investigation had identified that nearly 400 agents from different police departments had intervened in Uvalde.
His report denounced a chaotic situation, a lack of command and apathetic police officers. The police chief of the Uvalde school district was fired in August 2022.