Over 400 law enforcement officers waited outside the school for over an hour while the shooter was still inside
The Department of Justice said Thursday that the police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was a complete "failure," in a damning 575 page report.
The report, first obtained by CNN, comes nearly 20 months on from the fatal mass shooting on May 24 2022, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.
“The response to the May 24, 2022, mass casualty incident at Robb Elementary School was a failure,” the Justice Department report said.
"[Some] families received incorrect information suggesting their family members had survived when they had not," the report noted. "And others were notified of the deaths of their family members by personnel untrained in delivering such news."
After the 18-year-old gunman walked into the school and began shooting, it took 77 minutes for officers to stop him.
CNN reported that the DOJ found officers arrived on the scene quickly, then almost immediately stopped when they got close to classrooms where the gunman was active.
“Officers on scene should have recognized the incident as an active shooter scenario and moved and pushed forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until the room was entered, and the threat was eliminated," the report said. “That did not occur."
The Department of Justice reviewed over 13,000 pieces of evidence and interviewed more than 200 people as part of its investigation. Investigators uncovered new details not previously reported, ABC News said
The report said there were at least 10 "stimulus events" over that hour which should have pushed law enforcement to act and put a stop to the killings.
“During that period, no one assumed a leadership role to direct the response towards the active shooter, provide situational status to responding officers, establish some form of incident command, or clearly assume and communicate the role of incident commander,” the report added.
The DOJ called for law enforcement to act more swiftly in order to neutralize a gunman "immediately" if an active shooter report comes in.
Responding to the report, Congressman Colin Allred said he joined his fellow Texans in mourning the tragedy.
"As a dad, I cannot imagine the deep grief, heartbreak, and frustration these families are feeling," Allred said in a statement on X. "On that dark day, law enforcement failed to protect the vulnerable children at Robb Elementary.
"I join my fellow Texans today in mourning and demanding justice and accountability."
Senator Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) also spoke following the report's release, thanking the DOJ for "putting down what we've already known in black and white."
"That doesn't mean that we're done here, nor should it be," the senator said, saying he felt the report held many lessons for law enforcement agencies. "There was a lack of urgency, there was a lack of leadership."
The senator spoke of a teacher left to die in the back of an ambulance unable to move from the scene, while other resources were held back from arriving.
Another damning report of police response
The DOJ's report is not the first to examine what went wrong that fatal day.
In Dec. 2023, a joint report from ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE found students at the school followed their active shooter training without fault, but that law enforcement lacked sufficient training to deal with the situation.
The report found that, while hundreds of officers arrived outside the school and delayed entering, kids had already hidden themselves, dropped to the floor and crouched under desks or countertops, in line with the drills their teachers had put them through in the past.
According to the findings, 72% of the at least 116 officers at Robb Elementary School that day had received some kind of active shooter training at least once. Only three would have met Texas' new rules which require 16 hours every two years.
Another report, from state lawmakers in 2022, confirmed that officers waited over an hour before confronting the attacker.
At least five officers have lost their jobs in the wake of the shooting, including two Department of Public Safety officers and the town's school police chief, who was in command that day. Uvalde's mayor also called for the local District Attorney Christina Mitchell to resign, accusing her of covering up details of the incident.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is due to speak in Uvalde at 11 a.m. CT.
This is a developing story. More to follow.