Uvalde shooting report key findings: What contributed to delays, why injured kids weren’t treated sooner

What we’ve learned from the Department of Justice report on the delayed law enforcement response to the Uvalde mass shooting.

Law enforcement officers responded so poorly to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that the federal government took the extraordinary step of conducting an investigation into what went wrong.

While the 600-page report released by the Department of Justice on Thursday has not led to criminal charges or even firings, the imprimatur of the nation’s top law enforcement agency reaffirming the severe shortcomings of the local agencies that responded carried weight in the eyes of the heavily Latino, working-class community and the nation.

“We’ve been waiting for this because people in the community, they tell you, ‘Just move on,’” said Jesse Rizo, the uncle of 9-year-old Jacklyn Cazares, who was killed in the shooting. Rizo said the report confirms what his family believed all along — that the victims died a slow death while waiting for help that arrived too late.

In the end, the Justice Department found what other state investigations had already discovered: No one assumed command after a gunman entered the school and began indiscriminately shooting at students and teachers. A total of 21 people were killed on May 24, 2022, including 19 children, and 17 others were injured.

Had responding officers determined sooner that an active shooter was on campus, lives might have been saved, the report said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/takeaways-uvalde-shooting-doj-report-rcna134336

---