Local Police Reportedly Stop Cooperating With Texas School Shooting Investigation

Topline

The city and school district police departments in Uvalde, Texas, have ceased cooperating with a state-led investigation into last week’s deadly school shooting, ABC News reported, as local police draw stiff criticism for choosing not to immediately confront the shooter.

Key Facts

Both the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department—a separate agency—aren’t cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s probe, ABC reported, citing law enforcement sources.

They reportedly chose to stop cooperating after a jarring Friday press conference in which Texas DPS leader Steve McCraw criticized the school district police department for waiting over an hour during Tuesday’s shooting before finally breaking into the classroom that contained the gunman.

The Texas DPS, Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde school district did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Forbes.

Key Background

A lone shooter killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, making it the deadliest U.S. school shooting in almost a decade. On Friday, McCraw revealed more than an hour had passed between when the gunman first entered the school through an unlocked door and when a Border Patrol tactical team finally breached the classroom he had barricaded himself in, a delay that seemed to clash with longstanding guidance for police to immediately confront active shooters. McCraw said police waited for tactical help because they viewed the gunman as a barricaded suspect rather than an active shooter, a judgment he described as a “wrong decision” driven by a mistaken belief that children were no longer at risk—even though a child who was inside the classroom containing the shooter called 911 to plead for help.

Tangent

The federal Department of Justice is also conducting its own after-action review of the Texas shooting, following a request from Uvalde officials, the DOJ announced Sunday.

Further Reading

Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting (ABC News)