Justice Department Finds ‘Unimaginable Failure’ in Uvalde Police Response

A near-total breakdown in policing protocols hindered the response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead — and the refusal to rapidly confront the killerneedlessly cost lives, the Justice Department concluded on Thursday after a nearly two-year investigation.

The department blamed “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training” for the delayed and passive law enforcement response that allowed an 18-year-old gunman with a semiautomatic rifle to remain inside a pair of connected fourth grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School for 77 minutes before he was confronted and killed.

The “most significant failure,” investigators concluded, was the decision by local police officials to classify the incident as a barricaded standoff rather than an “active-shooter” scenario, which would have demanded instant and aggressive action. Almost all of the officials in charge that day have already been fired or have retired.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, speaking to reporters in Uvalde, said that the officers who converged on the school within minutes of the attack intended to storm the classrooms, but were told to stand down.

“Lives would have been saved, and people could have survived,” if officers had acted quickly to confront the gunman, Mr. Garland said. He related a timeline of several critical moments when officers outside the classrooms could have halted the rampage, but did not take action.