The U.S. border crisis helped create lax security at Uvalde School where 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were sacrificed, an explosive Texas report shows.
State lawmakers who investigated the horrific mass shooting pointed out in their findings a major problem affecting Texas border cities, as law enforcement detects more and more vehicles suspected of human trafficking, and they say the situation contributed to “relaxed surveillance” at the school during the May attack.
The report explained that when authorities try to pull a suspicious vehicle, the driver often refuses to stop and walks away, a dangerous fact that often ends in a crash and the operator and his passengers abandon, or “rescue “from the car. .
These “rescues” in Uvalde routinely trigger safety alerts for local schools, including Robb Elementary. But because the alerts don’t normally pose a danger to the school, they end up being treated a bit like the boy who cried the wolf, according to the dust report.
One of the factors that “contributes to relaxed surveillance [at Robb Elementary] it was the frequency of campus security alerts and blockages as a result of a recent increase in ‘rescues’, ”the report said.
“The frequency of these‘ rescue ’-related alarms, some 50 of them between February and May 2022, contributed to a decrease in the sense of vigilance over the response to security alerts,” the findings of the probe.
Frequent “rescues” of stopped drivers may have slowed police response to the Uvalde school shooting, according to a report.AP / Dario Lopez-Mills
In the minutes before the Uvalde school massacre, 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos stole his grandmother’s truck after shooting her in the face.
Ramos, who did not have a driver’s license, wrecked the truck near Robb Elementary, got out of the car and began firing at his alma mater before easily entering the building and killing his innocent victims.
The belief by some authorities that the Ramos accident was simply another rescue may have slowed the police response, according to the report.
Prior to the shooting, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told The Post that “rescues” forced schools to close 48 times last year.AP / Eric Gay
In a strange twist, two months before the massacre, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, spoke to The Post about the “savage” plague affecting his and other border towns.
“Forty-eight times last year we had to close public schools because of rescues in our community, 48 times, but I didn’t hear it on the news,” McLaughlin said.
Local, state and federal law enforcement have also been subjected to a large fire for failing to storm the classroom that became Ramos murder camp for more than an hour.
Salvador Ramos wrecked his grandmother’s truck near Robb Elementary before entering the building. REUTERS / Marco Bello
Nearly 400 alleged agents who did nothing had gathered at the scene during the commotion while the clock was ticking and there was bloodshed inside.
“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement officers did not adhere to their active training as shooters and did not prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report said.
“The leadership gap could have contributed to the loss of lives, as the injured victims waited more than an hour to receive help and the attacker continued to shoot sporadically with his weapon.”
In response to the findings, the school district told The Post that it will add security measures before the start of the 2022-2023 school year, including new perimeter fences, additional security cameras, updated doors and additional police officers.