The report is expected to focus on the facts of the attack, include a chronological sequence of events, a chronology, a law enforcement manifesto and details about the shooter, a source told CNN earlier . He is expected to clarify conflicting accounts of what happened, include textual quotations from sworn witnesses and show that the law enforcement failure that day was far greater than a person or agency, a source said.
Members of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the head and police officers of the UValde Consolidated Independent School District, the district superintendent, the school principal, a teacher, and custodial staff are among those who to testify in camera before the committee, with about 40 people. witness, according to a source.
Republican State Rep. Dustin Burrows, chairman of the committee, said last month that the group would do “everything in its power” to provide facts and answers about what happened “in anticipation, during and after this tragedy. “. Victims are expected to receive the report and surveillance video from the hallway, without audio, of the law enforcement response Sunday morning to offer them the opportunity to review it before meeting. with members of the research committee. Surveillance footage was leaked and published by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper on Tuesday, sparking outrage from both local officials and families who said they were blinded and disrespected for their unexpected release. This is what we know about the expected report. In a statement after the video was released by the newspaper, Burrows said that while he was happy that part of the video was made public, he was also “disappointed by the families of the victims and the Uvalde community’s requests to see first the video, and not having certain images and audio of the violence, were not achieved “.
The investigation committee report and video are expected to be released at the same time as Sunday’s meeting with relatives. A press conference is scheduled for Sunday afternoon for members of the press to ask questions to the committee. CNN will read the report once it is made public and update this story in development.
The report comes nearly eight weeks after an 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary and began firing inside a classroom, killing 19 children and two teachers. Key questions about the police response to the shooting have remained unanswered ever since. Main among them: why authorities waited more than an hour in the school hallway before confronting and killing the gunman, a move law enforcement experts say could have cost lives. DPS director Colonel Steven McCraw has condemned law enforcement response to the attack. , calling it an “abject failure” in a hearing before a Texas Senate committee last month and blaming the commander on the scene, whom state authorities have identified as district police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo.
“The only thing that prevented a corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on the scene, who decided to put the lives of the officers before that of the children,” McCraw said in that moment.
But Arredondo, who was put on administrative leave by the school district, told the Texas Tribune last month that he was not considered the commander of the incident and assumed another official had taken control of the larger response. “He took on the role of a front-line respondent,” the newspaper wrote over his head. Arredondo testified behind closed doors in Austin before the House inquiry committee in June.