Uvalde shooting: Victims' families outraged as independent investigator clears police of wrongdoing

UVALDE, TEXAS: Parents of the victims retaliated violently after the results of an independent review were made public and showed that local police officers were not at fault in the horrific shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

Veteran Austin, Texas investigator Jesse Prado looked at the Uvalde Police Department's response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in May 2022 for the Uvalde City Council report.

Uvalde City Council found no serious misconduct

Prado came to the conclusion that none of the initial five Uvalde police officers who responded to the shooting had engaged in serious misconduct or broken any policy.

The five Uvalde police officers were Staff Sgt Eduardo Canales, Lt Javier Martinez, Uvalde Detective Louis Landry, on-site commander Peter Arredondo, and Sgt Donald Page, who was among the first to find children in other classrooms in the hallway.

The inadequate response was attributed to inadequate equipment, inadequate communication, and inadequate law enforcement training, according to the review.

"There were problems all day long with communication and lack of it. The officers had no way of knowing what was being planned, what was being said," Prado said, as per Fox News.

Prado went on to say, "If they would have had a ballistic shield, it would have been enough to get them to the door."

Prado stated that his analysis demonstrated the officers' "immeasurable strength" and "level-headed thinking" in the face of the active shooter's gunfire.

"They were being shot at from eight feet away from the door," Prado said.

Prado added that the families who raced to the school made it difficult to establish a chain of command because they had to deal with parents who tried to enter the building.

"At times they were difficult to control," Prado said. "They were wanting to break through police barriers."

Prado's remarks caused parents in attendance at the Uvalde City Council report's findings to erupt in applause. "Cowards," a parent angrily exclaimed.

"My daughter was left for dead," Ruben Zamorra said. "These police officers signed up to do a job. They didn’t do it."

Police reported 376 law enforcement personnel visited Robb Elementary School

According to earlier reports from the police, 376 law enforcement personnel visited the Robb Elementary School.

The 18-year-old gunman, who had been armed with an AR-15-style rifle and had fired more than 140 rounds inside the school, was confronted by a team of law enforcement officers after they had been on the scene for 70 minutes, according to a report by the Texas House of Representatives investigative committee.

The "cascading failures" of responding law enforcement were criticized in a January report by the Department of Justice. The city's report "embarrassed" and "insulted" Uvalde City Council member Hector Luevano.

"These families deserve more. This community deserves more," Luevano said. "I don’t accept this report," as stated by Fox.