Entire Police Force Suspended By Uvalde School District

Topline

Nearly half a year after a gunman opened fire on students and teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the school district took the step of suspending its entire police force on Friday, according to multiple reports, following testimony and videos of the shooting showing a lax police response that took over an hour to apprehend the shooter.

Key Facts

The school district suspended all police activities and placed its department on leave, writing in a statement that “recent developments have uncovered additional concerns,” CNN and NBC News reported.

Parents of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, have been demanding accountability for the slow response from the school’s police department, with one parent calling it a “slap in the f***ing face” on social media, local ABC affiliate KVUE reported.

The school district requested officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety for its schools and extracurricular activities, ABC News reported, while it also plans to work with the Texas Police Chiefs Association on a management review that will determine how the district rebuilds its department and hires a new police chief to replace former chief Pete Arredondo, who was fired in August, according to a press release seen by KVUE.

The school’s director of student services, Ken Mueller, also resigned, Tony Plohetski, a reporter with the Austin American-Statesman, posted in a tweet.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District did not immediately respond to multiple inquiries from Forbes.

Key Background

In a July report, a Texas House of Representatives committee attributed the police’s slow response to the shooting that killed 19 children and 2 teachers on May 24 to “systemic failures” and “egregious poor decision making.” More than 375 local, state and federal officers responded to the shooting, but waited more than an hour to confront the gunman. Arredondo later told the Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the incident commander on the scene, blaming the response time to a locked door between officers and the 18-year-old shooter. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw went on to testify in a state senate hearing that the door was not locked and the police did not attempt to open it.

News Peg

The announcement comes one day after the district fired a former state Department of Public Safety trooper, who was recently hired by the school but let go after CNN identified her as one of the first officers to arrive at the shooting. The officer, Crimson Elizondo, is one of five state troopers under investigation for their sluggish response to the massacre.

Tangent

Families of three shooting victims filed a lawsuit in federal court last week, accusing the district and local law enforcement officials, as well as gunmaker Daniel Defense, trigger system manufacturer Firequest International, Oasis Outback—the gun store that sold two assault rifles to gunman Salvador Ramos—and Motorola Solutions, the maker of the communications equipment used by police, of “negligent, careless and reckless” decision making that enabled Ramos to commit the shooting. In addition to a slow police response, parents claim Daniel Defense’s use of “reckless marketing” and Firequest International’s “unreasonably dangerous and illegal” trigger systems made the shooting possible, and argue that Oasis Outback allegedly sold two assault rifles to Ramos, even though he had the “display of a young school shooter.”

Further Reading

Uvalde schools hire — and then fire — former DPS trooper under investigation for shooting response (Texas Tribune)

Families Of Uvalde Shooting Survivors Sue Local Officials And Gunmakers (Forbes)