Takeaways from Uvalde-funded report by Private Investigator Jesse Prado on Robb Elementary shooting, failures.
During a special meeting on Thursday, Austin-area investigator Jesse Prado presented his Independent Expert Investigative Report into the Uvalde Police Department’s response to the Robb Elementary shooting on May 24, 2022.
The City of Uvalde paid over $100,000 for the report.
This report is in stark contrast to the Department of Justice’s investigation, which found massive failures and delays by law enforcement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed strong criticism of the law enforcement response to the shooting at Robb Elementary, characterizing it as a failure. A comprehensive 600-page report from the Department of Justice delves into the multitude of shortcomings by law enforcement during the incident.
The report highlights a critical error made by police in assuming that the shooter, Salvador Ramos, was barricaded or incapacitated, despite ongoing gunfire. This erroneous mindset persisted throughout much of the incident, leading to a significant delay in confronting the gunman. Instead of swiftly entering the classrooms to intervene, law enforcement waited nearly an hour, demonstrating a lack of urgency that the report describes as costly.
Garland emphasized that the victims and survivors should not have been left exposed to the shooter for over an hour while awaiting rescue. Ramos was ultimately neutralized approximately 77 minutes after police arrived on the scene, when a tactical team, led by the Border Patrol, finally entered the classroom.
The Attorney General pointed out that these law enforcement failures directly contributed to the loss of life during the incident. He asserted that if authorities had adhered to standard practices in an active shooter situation by promptly engaging the gunman, lives could have been saved and more people would have survived the ordeal.