By
Associated Press
The mayor of Uvalde on Friday rejected a new report according to which authorities missed an opportunity to quickly put an end to the shooting at a school in this Texas city, in a new sign of a lack of consensus on the response of the authorities to one of the deadliest massacres in US history.
Mayor Don McLaughlin denied that any Uvalde police officer was targeting the attacker outside the school and that he might have been shot.
"Ultimately, it could be a coach with children in the yard, not the shooter," he explained in a statement about the police action.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, Jr., at a municipal event on June 7, 2022. Eric Gay / AP
However, a University of Texas investigation into tactical response suggests that one of the officers responding to the attack shot the assailant down before he entered Robb Elementary School and gunned down 19 children and two teachers on Thursday. May 24.
According to the 26-page document commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DHS), an agent armed with a rifle watched as the attacker headed toward the campus, but did not fire, waiting to receive the approval of a supervisor.
Said supervisor "did not listen or responded too late," according to the report.
The different versions and public criticism of the report reaffirm how, more than six weeks after the May 24 shooting, questions remain about how and why the police, armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waited more than an hour before confront the attacker in a fourth grade classroom.
Experts believe that a Uvalde police officer who saw the shooter before the attack was able to stop him
July 7, 202201:54
It has also widened the trust gap between authorities in Uvalde and the state, particularly DHS, which had troops on the scene and has blamed much of the tragedy on local school district police chief Pete Arredondo, temporarily suspended from his post.
Col. Steve McCraw, who heads DPS, has largely blamed the inaction by law enforcement on Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, whom he placed in command of the operation.
[The minute-by-minute timeline of the massacre at Uvalde Elementary School reflects the slow response of the police]
Arredondo, on the other hand, told the Texas Tribune that he did not believe he was in charge.
In June he was temporarily suspended and in early July he resigned from his elected position on the Uvalde city council.
DPS told state lawmakers Friday that Uvalde County Prosecutor Christina Busbee would not authorize the agency to release a 77-minute video recorded in the hallway containing the room where the assailant barricaded himself, before to be seized by the authorities.
"What if they were your children": Parents of the Robb de Uvalde school demand answers
July 1, 202201:53
This is not the first time McLaughlin has lashed out at the agency.
She also previously accused her of publicly giving an incomplete and biased version of events, while she said that local officials had been instructed not to release information while the investigation was ongoing.
Texas lawmakers are finalizing their own report after interviewing more than 20 witnesses and emergency crews involved in the tragedy behind closed doors.
The day of its publication is unknown.
