An armed Uvalde, Texas, police officer spotted the gunman before he entered Robb Elementary School, and was ready to fire. The officer asked his supervisor for permission to take the shot but didn’t hear back, according to a new report on law enforcement’s response to the shooting, per The Washington Post.
The bottom line: A top Texas law enforcement official stated last month that there were enough armed officers to stop the shooting after it began, NPR reported. Instead, it took over an hour to take down the gunman.
- Now, over a month after the gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a new report has been released that assesses the response of law enforcement officers, according to CNN.
- CNN says, according to the report, there were a series of “missed opportunities, mistakes and ‘key issues’ which, if handled differently, could have helped avert the tragedy.”
Details: The “Robb Elementary School Attack Response Assessment and Recommendations” report, produced by Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training team, went into further details on the events of May 24.
- Another officer reportedly almost came into contact with the shooter while he was on school grounds, prior to his entrance into the building, according to the Texas Tribune.
- The report states that a school district police officer “drove through the school’s parking lot ‘at a high rate of speed’ and didn’t spot the gunman, who was still in the parking lot.”
- If the officer was driving more slowly, the report states that he may have been able to see the suspect before he entered the school.
- The report also pointed out flaws in the school’s security, finding that propping doors open was a common occurrence, according to the Texas Tribune. The door the gunman entered through was propped open by a teacher. The teacher closed it before he entered the building, but the door did not lock properly.
- The officers approached the shooter correctly at first, but then lost momentum as they approached the classroom he was in, according to the report, per CNN. The report said it took officers more than an hour to “regain momentum.”
- “Maintaining position or even pushing forward to a better spot to deliver accurate return fire would have undoubtedly been dangerous, and there would have been a high probability that some of the officers would have been shot or even killed,” the assessment explained, via CNN. “However, the officers also would likely have been able to stop the attacker and then focus on getting immediate medical care to the wounded.”