Lawmaker asks FBI to investigate police response to Uvalde massacre, including apparent failure to confront shooter

A Texas Democrat is urging the FBI to investigate the police response to the Uvalde school shooting.

Rep. Joaquin Castro wants the bureau to provide a "complete and comprehensive account."

The request comes after reports law enforcement failed to confront the gunman for up to an hour.

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A US congressman is urging the FBI to investigate the police handling of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in particular the apparent failure to confront the gunman while he was allegedly barricaded in a classroom.

In a letter addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from San Antonio, asked the bureau to provide a "complete and comprehensive account" of the May 24 killing of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, including a "timeline of events and the law enforcement response."

Castro highlighted the conflicting accounts of the police response, including the claim — retracted on Thursday — that an officer at the school "exchanged fire" with the suspected gunman before he entered the building.

At a press conference earlier on Thursday, Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety said that claim was indeed "not accurate," and that the shooter entered the building "unobstructed."

Castro also highlighted the fact that police have failed to explain why they waited to intervene while the gunman was in the school, with a 90-minute period still not fully accounted for.

"Onlookers allege that parents unsuccessfully urged law enforcement to enter the building during this time and confront the shooter," Castro wrote. The shooter was reportedly killed by a Border Patrol agent, not a local police officer, whose tactical unit had responded to the shooting.

In a statement to Insider, an FBI spokesperson said the bureau "received the letter," but "we don't have any additional comment."

During a briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration wouldn't be looking into the response.

"I know that right now, authorities are working to piece together more details of what happened in Uvalde, so we won't prejudge the result from here at this time," she told reporters. "It is always a good idea to look back and try to find any lessons we can learn, especially from tragedies like this, so that we can prevent them moving forward, including the law enforcement response."

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toast776 on May 27th, 2022 at 00:26 UTC »

Uvalde PD literally 1.5 miles away from the school

malarkeyfreezone on May 26th, 2022 at 22:54 UTC »

The resource officer who "engaged" the shooter before he entered the school? Didn't exist.

Uvalde mass shooter was not confronted by police before he entered the school, Texas official says

The 18-year-old gunman who killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not confronted by police before he entered the school, a Texas law enforcement official said Thursday, contradicting earlier comments from authorities and raising further questions about the police response to the massacre.

"He walked in unobstructed initially," Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Regional Director Victor Escalon said. "So from the grandmother's house, to the (ditch), to the school, into the school, he was not confronted by anybody."

A DPS representative on Wednesday said a school resource officer had "engaged" with the suspect before he went in the school. ...

There was no school resource officer on site or available at the time, he said. Inside, the suspect walked into a classroom and fired more than 25 times, Escalon said. The majority of the gunfire was in the beginning of the attack, he said.

It took the shooter 12 minutes to get from his ditched truck to the school, and all the while he was shooting at people. 12 minutes. Where were the cops?

Escalon could not immediately explain how the suspect wasn't stopped in the 12 minutes between the crash and campus entry.

Some 12 minutes elapsed between Ramos crashing his pickup truck near the school and entering the building, Escalon said. During that period, the gunman opened fire on witnesses, and a 911 caller reported a man carrying a gun. Police did not arrive until the gunman had entered the school, however, Escalon said. And when he shot at the officers, they retreated to await backup.

A witness who encountered the gunman after he crashed his truck near Robb Elementary said he was one of several people the gunman fired at before entering the school.

“I ran down there thinking someone got hurt and by the time I got down there, the guy is coming out of the passenger side holding a rifle,” Albert Vargas, 62, said.

He added: “His face was blank. There was no expression there. He looked like nothing mattered but the mission he was on. He fired the shots, ran, jumped a fence and headed towards the school.”

Cops were handcuffing, pepper-spraying and tackling parents.

Chilling reports have emerged of parents pushing past law enforcement to rescue their children by any means, their efforts growing increasingly dire as the gunman remained in the school. Law enforcement officials have given conflicting accounts of what was happening during the 40 minutes the gunman was inside – as groups of police remained outside.

According to The Journal, Gomez was put in handcuffs by federal marshals for "intervening in an active crime scene," as she and other parents demanded officers enter the school. Gomez persuaded Uvalde law enforcement officers to release her, and she moved away from the crowd.

Gomez then hopped the school fence, sprinted inside the school to grab her children and made it out of the school with them alive.

Another parent was pepper-sprayed as he attempted to get into the school, and a father was tackled by authorities, Gomez told The Journal.

According to one of the fourth graders, the cops got at least one child shot.

The boy and four others hid under a table that had a tablecloth over it, which may have shielded them from the shooter's view and saved their lives. The boy shared heartbreaking details about what happened in that room.

“When the cops came, the cop said: 'Yell if you need help!' And one of the persons in my class said 'help.' The guy overheard and he came in and shot her," the boy said. "The cop barged into that classroom. The guy shot at the cop. And the cops started shooting.”

Oh, and the husband of one of the murdered teachers has just died from a heart attack

The husband of a teacher killed in the massacre has died of a heart attack.

1888CAVicky on May 26th, 2022 at 22:43 UTC »

Some of them went in to get their own children out first. https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-texas-police-spox-on-live-tv-confirmed-cops-went-in-for-their-own-kids-during-uvalde-shooting/