The families of the victims of the 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., expressed outrage and dismay after an independent report found the local law enforcement officers who stood by while the shooting was ongoing did not violate policy.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the May 2022 shooting.
Jesse Prado, a retired Austin police detective, offered the report to the Uvalde city council during a meeting on Thursday. The report is contrary to many other reports about the shooting, including a scathing 2024 Department of Justice report which pointed to “cascading failures” by officers on the scene as well as the cowardice of waiting more than an hour to confront the shooter. A 2022 preliminary report from the Texas House said the officers’ “lackadaisical approach” may have cost the victims’ their lives.
Prado’s report claims none of the officers on the scene violated Uvalde Police Department policy and acted in good faith. The report found “many failures” in the law enforcement response, but did not identify a specific police officer who was responsible for those failures. However, he does cite Border Patrol tactical commander Paul Guerrero, who led the team that killed the gunman, for calling off a move that could have stopped the shooting a half hour earlier because he feared it would take too long too force open the locked classroom door.
Prado did not investigate response from the Border Patrol or the Texas Department of Public Safety for the report. More than 370 law enforcement officers responded.
“You said that they did it in good faith. You call that good faith? They stood there 77 minutes and waited after they got call after call that kids were still alive in there,” Veronica Mata, whose 10-year-old daughter Tess was killed, said. “We’re going to stand here and we’re going to keep fighting for our own, because nobody else is going to do it.”
Some of the family members left the meeting before Prado’s concluded his remarks after becoming angry and emotional at the unfolding presentation, which included the claim that families who rushed to the scene compromised the police response.
“My daughter was left for dead,” Ruben Zamorra said following the presentation. “These police officers signed up to do a job. They didn’t do it.”
