Texas Prosecutor Convenes Grand Jury To Investigate Uvalde Shooting, Multiple Media Report

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor has convened a grand jury to investigate the Uvalde school shooting that killed 21 people, multiple media reported Friday.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell told the San Antonio Express-News that a grand jury will review evidence related to the Robb Elementary School shooting in 2022 that left 19 children and two teachers dead. She did not disclose what the grand jury will focus on, the newspaper reported.

Mitchell did not immediately respond to emailed questions and calls to her office. The empaneling of the grand jury was first reported by the Uvalde Leader-News.

Families of the children and teachers killed in the attacked renewed demands for criminal charges after a scathing Justice Department report released Thursday again laid bare numerous failures by police during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history.

“I’m very surprised that no one has ended up in prison,” said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the two teachers killed in the May 24, 2022, shooting. “It’s sort of a slap in the face that all we get is a review… we deserve justice.”

The release of the nearly 600-page report — roughly 20 months after the shooting — leaves a criminal investigation by Uvalde County prosecutors as one the last unfinished reviews by authorities into the attack at Robb Elementary School. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed inside two fourth-grade classrooms, while highly armed police officers waited in the hallways for more than hour before going inside to confront the gunman.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the police response “a failure that should not have happened.”

But the report is deliberately silent on the