A police officer had the killer in the sights of his rifle before he entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and shot dead 19 children and two teachers on May 24, according to an investigative report accessed by the newspaper. The Austin Statesman and NBC News confirmed.
The agent did not fire because he waited for a superior officer to authorize him to do so
.
Receiving no response, "he turned around to get confirmation from his supervisor," and "when he turned back to see the suspect, he had already entered [the school]," the report from the ALERRT center (
Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training
) from the University of Texas.
Children escape from a classroom at Robb de Uvalde School through a window, on May 24, 2022.Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News/Reuters
This report adds to the list of mistakes Uvalde police made in responding to the emergency at the elementary school on May 24.
[An agent from Uvalde tried to enter the school to rescue his wife but was stopped by the police and his weapon was taken from him]
According to the report, the officers put their own lives at risk because they did not follow federal guidelines for responding to an attack by a gunman.
He also warned that police mistakes likely led to "some of the people who died during this event" not being saved.
The 28-page report was requested by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the actions of local police during the shooting.
It also details other measures that the agents could have taken to stop the murderer when he was already inside the classroom, but that were not put into practice.
For example, entering through a window in the room or breaking the drywall wall.
In addition, he revealed that the agents had more weapons than previously known, such as pepper spray cans.
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Uvalde School Police Chief Peter Arredondo has been heavily criticized for delaying the response of officers responding to the shooting.
It took 77 minutes to intervene to bring down the attacker, since he entered the school (although his grandmother had already reported him half an hour earlier for shooting him in the face).
[The minute-by-minute timeline of the massacre at Uvalde Elementary School reflects the slow response of the police]
Arredondo was suspended from his post on June 22 and resigned as a city councilman last week following criticism.
Among his justifications is the alleged lack of weapons to confront the attacker and a key to open the classroom.
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However, both justifications were denied by the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steve McGraw, who pointed out that the agents had a ballistic shield from minute 19 and had enough weapons and personnel to confront the attacker three minutes after who entered school.
He also said that they did not try to open the classroom, which was never locked.
Experts consulted by the ALERTT center of the University of Texas affirmed that the agent who had the murderer in his sights should have shot him, since he had legal justification to do so in those circumstances.
"A reasonable officer would have concluded in this case... that the use of deadly force was justified," the report's authors said, adding that their intent is not to disqualify the law enforcement response, but rather to improve it going forward.