Uvalde

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Fact check: Video falsely claims to demonstrate lack of birth records for Uvalde victims

The claim: Video demonstrates there are no birth records for child Uvalde victims

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/07/05/fact-check-birth-records-young-uvalde-victims-arent-public/7770760001/?utm_source=usatoday-CheckingtheFacts

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Uvalde officer asked permission to shoot gunman outside school but got no answer, report finds

The report by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center says authorities missed other opportunities to stop the gunman before he killed 19 students and two teachers in Robb Elementary.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/06/uvalde-school-shooting-robb-elementary-report/

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Uvalde report: 376 officers but ‘egregiously poor’ decisions

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman who took 21 lives was finally confronted and killed, according to a damning investigative report released Sunday.

https://apnews.com/article/shootings-texas-education-violence-school-31aa135678f8118ed96d893ea77cf8ea?

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Uvalde school police chief fired for response to shooting

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The Uvalde school district has fired police chief Pete Arredondo under mounting pressure in the grieving Texas town to punish officers for hesitating for over an hour to storm a classroom and take down the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-police-shootings-texas-6c5ba12b382b5cc42a6e5816dc418383?

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Uvalde school district suspends entire police force, superintendent to retire amid fallout from shooting

The district has faced withering criticism over its police department’s actions.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/uvalde-school-district-suspends-entire-police-force-fallout/story?id=91172897

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Police chief fired after months of criticism for Uvalde elementary school massacre response

UVALDE, Texas – The Uvalde school board has fired school district police chief Pete Arredondo, a move that came three months to the day after the mass shooting at an elementary school that claimed the lives of 21 people.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/24/uvalde-school-district-police-chief-fired-response-shooting/7887242001/

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New report on Uvalde mass shooting exposes why law enforcement sat on their hands for over an hour

For far too long now, conservatives and Second Amendment fetishists have attempted to downplay the mass lethality inherent in AR-15 guns. It is not difficult to debunk this concept, considering the weapon was originally designed “for the military as a smaller replacement for FOUR different rifles.” The American assault rifle industry has marketed the AR-15 class of weapons as firearms that could be used to do military-style killing, which is a lot more killing than simply mowing down a deer, no matter what Republican Sen. John Thune says about needing an AR-15 to kill “prairie dogs.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/20/2159263/-New-report-on-Uvalde-mass-shooting-exposes-why-law-enforcement-sat-on-their-hands-for-over-an-hour?

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Uvalde families back at Texas Capitol as gun bills languish

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — For the first time since the Uvalde school shooting, Texas Republican lawmakers on Tuesday allowed proposals for stricter gun laws to get a hearing in the state Capitol — where any new restrictions have little chance of passing.

https://apnews.com/article/gun-legislation-shooting-uvalde-parents-3b75eb97f992b005df3851122b418136

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One year after Uvalde shooting, investigation of police response continues

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A criminal investigation in Texas over the hesitant police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting is still ongoing as Wednesday marks one year since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas-mass-shootings-dafe25d2174c046fba425514bd7a2613?

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Judge Rules Texas DPS Must Release Withheld Documents Related to the Uvalde School Shooting

The ruling marks the first step toward disclosing the extensive collection of police documents, though the state agency could choose to fight the ruling by appealing the decision.

https://www.propublica.org/article/judge-rules-texas-dps-must-release-uvalde-records?

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Uvalde shooter’s cousin is arrested over making a school shooting threat, court records say

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The teenage cousin of the gunman responsible for the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has been arrested after his family told police he was trying to buy a gun and “do the same thing,” court records show.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-cousin-school-shooting-threat-texas-arrest-b3dc1284565aed54022f09b02d27b003?

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“He Has a Battle Rifle”: Uvalde Police Waited to Enter Classroom, Fearing Firepower From Gunman’s AR-15

In previously unreleased interviews, police told investigators they were cowed by the Uvalde shooter’s military-style rifle. This drove their decision to wait for a Border Patrol SWAT team to engage him, which took more than an hour.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-police-gunman-ar-15-delays?

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“Someone Tell Me What to Do”

Across the country, states require more training to prepare students and teachers for mass shootings than for those expected to protect them. The differences were clear in Uvalde, where children and officers waited on opposite sides of the door.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-officer-student-trainings-mass-shootings?

Editor's Note

Why We’re Publishing Never-Reported Details of the Uvalde School Shooting Before State Investigators

Over a year after the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the community still doesn’t know what went wrong. It’s a key reason we’re publishing findings based on a trove of raw materials investigators have yet to release. When mass shootings devastate communities, investigators often set out to learn what happened by interviewing a wide array of people. What’s made public, if anything, rarely details the intimate, candid and emotional responses of the survivors and the first responders. Today, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and the PBS series FRONTLINE are jointly publishing an in-depth examination of the response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, using a trove of raw materials from a state investigation whose findings have yet to be released. The records include investigative interviews with officers, emergency responders, teachers and children, as well as video footage, audio recordings and photographs. Using these records, we reconstructed the day’s events, showing in painstaking detail how law enforcement’s lack of preparation contributed to delays in confronting the shooter on May 24, 2022. Nineteen children and two teachers died that day. Dozens of others will forever contend with scars, both physical and emotional. Uvalde is one of at least 120 mass shootings since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Experiences with other mass shootings have taught us that it can take years for communities to learn what occurred. In October, nearly two years after a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan that killed four people, an independent consulting firm issued a report that found multiple failures. In other cases, such as the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, where a gunman killed 10 people, families are still waiting. Many in Uvalde have expressed frustration that they have not had access to more information about the shooting more than a year and a half later. ProPublica and the Tribune are part of a coalition of news organizations that sued the Department of Public Safety, the agency investigating the law enforcement response, for records that it has declined to release. Last week, a state district judge ordered DPS to release records related to the shooting. The agency has said it plans to appeal the decision. The journalism that ProPublica, the Tribune and FRONTLINE are publishing today will fill some of the void for those who want to better understand what happened and hopefully provide needed insights — and very likely raise important questions. The process of putting together the documentary and investigative article involved significant work to understand the contents of the trove. Reporters from the three news organizations reviewed hundreds of hours of body camera footage and investigative interviews, including more than 150 given by local, state and federal officers who responded to the shooting. They evaluated radio and dispatch communications and listened to the accounts of teachers, students and medics at the school that day. They also conducted separate interviews with teachers, students and parents, some of whom are featured in the article and the film. A key part of the analysis required putting body camera footage on a timeline to try to establish an accurate chronology of the response. In many instances, the burned-in timecode on the footage was inaccurate. So, the reporters and editors used the sources in the trove — real-time surveillance footage, 911 and radio call logs, and a DPS spreadsheet — as well as audio and visual cues within the footage — such as sounds of gunfire, simultaneous actions and words spoken, images of cellphones with the actual time on screen — to help align with the actual time. As a result, in some instances, the time stamps in the original body camera footage are blurred in the documentary and in video clips in the article to avoid confusion. Reporters also examined training across the country, finding that state laws require more instruction to prepare students and teachers for mass shootings than they do for the officers expected to protect them. They conducted two separate 50-state analyses to determine how much preparation each state’s laws require for children and teachers compared with law enforcement officers. They also filed public information requests with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement for the individual training records of more than 160 state and local officers who responded to Robb Elementary that day. Reporters used information provided by the officers in their interviews and body camera footage to determine how many arrived before officers killed the shooter. The newsrooms shared findings of officers’ training with law enforcement agencies, allowing them to respond with any additional information not reflected in the records. Most did not. The news organizations sent letters to officers named in the article, outlining findings and offering them the opportunity to respond. Officers featured in the film also received letters. None agreed to speak with the reporters on the record. Some have previously defended their actions, including former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who did so in a June 2022 interview with the Tribune and in testimony before a state legislative committee. Any time a child is named or a photograph of a child is included, we have obtained consent from at least one parent as a courtesy. That’s the case with a photograph showing children’s faces before the shooting, audio of investigative interviews with students and a 911 call with one of the children. All of the children who are named or shown survived. We are also publishing a short video that shows Khloie Torres on a bus after the shooting. Her hair and clothing have blood on them that is not her own, and she is crying as she talks with a state trooper. The video, which includes a content warning, is being published with parental consent. Though it is difficult to watch, we believe it shows the human consequences of this mass shooting, as well as Khloie’s efforts to get help for her classmates. Separately, journalists contacted the families of victims not mentioned in the article or the film to notify them that we would publish video and audio as part of our reporting. We understand that detailed accounts of the day, including audio and video recordings, can be emotionally challenging. The aim was to present enough information to help the public more fully grasp what happened while protecting the privacy of the children and teachers as much as possible. We believe the story and documentary offer a deeper understanding of these tragic events.

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Why We’re Publishing Never-Reported Details of the Uvalde School Shooting Before State Investigators

When mass shootings devastate communities, investigators often set out to learn what happened by interviewing a wide array of people. What’s made public, if anything, rarely details the intimate, candid and emotional responses of the survivors and the first responders.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-school-shooting-investigation-details-publishing-decision?

“Someone Tell Me What to Do”

The children hid. They dropped to the floor, crouching under desks and countertops, far from the windows. They lined up against the walls, avoiding the elementary school doors that separated them from a mass shooter about a decade older than them. Some held up the blunted scissors that they often used to cut shapes as they prepared to fight. A few grabbed bloodied phones and dialed 911. And as students across the country have been instructed for years, they remained quiet, impossibly quiet. At times, they hushed classmates who screamed in agony from the bullets that tore through their small bodies.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-officer-student-trainings-mass-shootings?

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Stunning Uvalde failure

Photo: Justice Department A 600-plus page Justice Department report out today chronicles — in heartbreaking detail — how law enforcement failed desperate children and teachers at the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Axios' Jacob Knutson writes. Why it matters: State and local police badly mishandled the situation and wasted precious time that could have been used to save some of the 21 lives lost at Robb Elementary School, the report concluded. Zoom in: Attorney General Merrick Garland said the most significant mistake was law enforcement's initial failure to treat the scene as an "active shooter scenario." Police believed the shooter was "barricaded" or "contained" when he wasn't, which delayed a confrontation. The report outlines a stunning series of other failures that include... Leadership: Local police acted with "no urgency" to establish a clear command structure during the shooting. Policing flaws: Officers said they were delayed by locked doors at the entrance to two classrooms. But federal reviewers concluded that at least one of the doors was probably unlocked the entire time. Communication: Inaccurate information and inconsistent messaging after the shooting "added to the victims' suffering, both on the day of the incident and in the days after the mass shooting." Go deeper ... Read the report.

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Texas prosecutor convenes grand jury to investigate Uvalde shooting, multiple media report

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor has convened a grand jury to investigate the Uvalde school shooting, multiple newspapers reported Friday, as families of the 19 children and two teachers killed continued their calls for criminal charges against officers involved in the hesitant and haphazard police response to the massacre.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-police-crime-charges-aff5ec50f5819913da41f412dadb5a74?

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Uvalde families reach settlement 2 years after school shooting

Nineteen families of Robb Elementary School mass shooting victims settled their suit against the city of Uvalde and have taken legal action against the Texas Department of Public Safety and the school district two years after the tragedy.

https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2024/05/22/uvalde-school-shooting-families-settlement-texas-lawsuit?

Families of Uvalde school shooting victims are suing Texas state police over botched response

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The families of 19 of the victims in the Uvalde elementary school shooting in Texas on Wednesday filed a $500 million federal lawsuit against nearly 100 state police officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe?

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Former Uvalde school cops indicted over disastrous response to 2022 shooting

Uvalde school district's former police chief failed to identify an active shooting and slowed law enforcement's response to a gunman who was "hunting" victims, according to an indictment unsealed Friday, the AP reported.

https://www.axios.com/2024/06/28/uvalde-police-indicted-school-shooting-robb-elementary?

Indictment accuses former Uvalde schools police chief of delays while shooter was ‘hunting’ children

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The police chief for schools in Uvalde, Texas, failed to identify an active shooting, did not follow his training and made critical decisions that slowed the law enforcement response to stop a gunman who was “hunting” victims and ultimately killed 21 people at Robb Elementary, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-schools-police-chief-indicted-7be185f9a43cf3b88069e33103fd8983?

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A grand jury has indicted two former Uvalde school police officers in the failed law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Former Uvalde police chief Pete Arredondo and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales were named in the indictments, which represent the first criminal charges filed in the massacre. They both face felony charges of abandoning and endangering a child, Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell told a local newspaper. A total of 376 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded to the scene on the day of the shooting, the second deadliest on a K-12 school in the US. However, officers waited 77 minutes after the 18-year-old gunman entered two adjoining classrooms before storming in and killing him.

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Former Uvalde schools police chief says he’s being ‘scapegoated’ over response to mass shooting

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The former police chief of the Uvalde school district said he thinks he’s been “scapegoated” as the one to blame for the botched law enforcement response to the Robb Elementary School shooting, when hundreds of officers waited more than an hour to confront the gunman even as children were lying dead and wounded inside adjoining classrooms.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-arredondo-985c928628e9ac1aa2abc9a429c7f179?

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‘I don’t want to die,’ Uvalde student told 911 dispatcher during school shooting

Frantic calls from terrified pupils and staff members during the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School were included in a massive collection of audio and video recordings released by Uvalde city officials Saturday after a prolonged legal fight. Read more.

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Uvalde Police Failed to Turn Over All Body Camera Footage From Robb Elementary Shooting, Department Says

Officials in Uvalde, Texas, revealed on Wednesday that they failed to release some officer body camera and dashboard footage related to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting as required by a settlement agreement with news organizations that sued for access.

https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-police-failed-turn-over-body-camera-video-robb-elementary?

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Uvalde

The Uvalde City Council has approved a $2 million settlement with the families of the victims from the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Texas. Three years ago, a teenage gunman stormed into two classrooms, killing 19 children and two teachers, while hundreds of law enforcement officers waited outside. The city also agreed to create a “fitness for duty” standard for police officers, provide better emergency training and erect a permanent memorial to honor the victims. “Nothing can ever make up for the losses and harms these families endured on May 24, 2022, but (the) agreement marks an important step forward in advancing community healing and ensuring our City forever honors the lives we tragically lost and supporting all surviving victims,” Uvalde Mayor Hector Luevano said in a statement.

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Uvalde County leaders release video, records showing response to school shooting that left 21 dead

County leaders in Uvalde, Texas, released police body camera video and documents Tuesday detailing the agonizingly slow law enforcement response during the 2022 shooting, one of the deadliest classroom attacks in U.S. history that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Read More.

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What newly released videos and records reveal about the Uvalde school shooting

Anguished pleas from parents. Confused police officers. The horrifying scene that emergency crews found when they first got inside the classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Newly released records surrounding the May 2022 massacre, including hundreds of pages of files and hours of body camera video, show in greater detail the heartbreak and failures of one the worst school shootings in U.S. history. Read More.