School attack report absolving police of missteps outrages Uvalde parents

An investigation Uvalde city leaders ordered into the Robb Elementary School shooting has put no blame on local police officers and defended their actions, despite acknowledging a series of rippling failures during the fumbled response to the 2022 classroom attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Several family members of victims walked out in anger midway though a presentation on Thursday that portrayed Uvalde Police Department officers of acting swiftly and appropriately, in contrast to scathing and sweeping state and federal past reports that faulted police at every level.

"You said they did it in good faith. You call that good faith? They stood there 77 minutes," said Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter was among those killed in the attack, after the presentation ended.

Another person in the crowd screamed, "Cowards!"

Jesse Prado, an Austin-based investigator and former police detective who made the report for the Uvalde City Council, described several failures by responding local, state and federal officers at the scene that day: communication problems, poor training for live shooter situations, lack of available equipment and delays on breaching the classroom.

"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.

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

Past probes into massacre

The report is just one of several probes into the massacre.

Texas lawmakers found in 2022 that nearly 400 local, state and federal officers rushed to the scene but waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman.

A Department of Justice report in January criticised the "cascading failures" of responding law enforcement.

But Prado said his review showed that officers showed "immeasurable strength" and "level-headed thinking" as they faced fire from the shooter and refrained from shooting into a darkened classroom.

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

Family members erupted when Prado left after his presentation. "Bring him back!' several of them shouted.

Tensions remain high between Uvalde city officials and the local prosecutor, while the community of more than 15,000, about 140 kilometres southwest of San Antonio, is plagued with trauma and divided over accountability.