The actions, or more notably, inaction, of a school district police chief and other law enforcement officers quickly moved to the center of the investigation into this week’s shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The delay in dealing with the shooter, who was more than an hour inside the school, could lead to discipline, complaints and even criminal charges against the police.
The attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead in a fourth-grade classroom was the deadliest school shooting in the country in nearly a decade, and for three days police offered a confusing and sometimes contradictory chronology that went provoking public anger and frustration.
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Authorities on Friday acknowledged that students and teachers repeatedly begged for help from 911 operators, while the police chief told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway at Robb Elementary School. Officials said they believed the suspect was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and that there was no longer any active attack.
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The chief’s decision, and the officers’ apparent willingness to follow his directives against the established protocols of active shooters, raised questions about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act more quickly to stop the gunman and who should to be responsible.
“In these cases, I think the public opinion tribunal is much worse than any administrative judgment of the police department or court,” said Joe Giacalone, a retired New York City police sergeant. “This has been handled so terribly on so many levels that there will be a slaughter lamb here or there.”
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When the gunman shot at the students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school’s police chief to let them in because the children were in danger, two police officials said.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been allowed to speak publicly about the investigation.
One official said the audio recordings of the scene captured officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him. But it was not clear why the school principal ignored his warnings.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who praised police for saving lives at a news conference earlier this week, said he was wrong about the initial response and promised there would be investigations into “who exactly knew what, when, who was in charge “. ”And what they did.
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“The bottom line is: why didn’t they choose the strategy that would have been better to get in and eliminate the killer and rescue the children?” said Abbott.
Criminal charges are rarely prosecuted against law enforcement in school shootings. A notable exception was former school resources officer accused of hiding during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 dead.
Possible administrative punishments – imposed by the department itself – could range from a suspended suspension or salary to forced resignation or retirement or termination.
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With regard to civil liability, the so-called “qualified immunity” legal doctrine, which protects police officers from lawsuits, unless their actions violate clearly established laws, could also be at stake in future litigation.
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Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo decided that the group of officers should wait to confront the assailant, believing that the active attack was over, according to Steven McCraw. head of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The crisis ended shortly after officers used a janitor’s keys to open the classroom door, entered the room and shot and killed Ramos.
Arredondo could not be reached for comment Friday, and Uvalde’s agents were parked outside his home, but did not say why.
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Prosecutors will have to decide whether Arredondo’s decision and officers’ inaction constituted a tragic mistake or criminal negligence, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is a teacher at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Levenson said prosecutors could file charges of state felony homicide for criminal negligence, though he said federal civil rights charges would be unlikely because they require intent.
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“I don’t know if we expect all agents to make a perfect decision at the time,” he said. “But waiting so long, given what we know about how shooters act, is predictable that it will lead to tragedy.”
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In the Parkland case, former Broward County MP Scot Peterson is scheduled to stand trial in September on charges of child negligence with grievous bodily harm, culpable negligence and perjury. He said he did the best he could at the time.
Florida prosecutors’ “unprecedented and irresponsible” decision to file a criminal case against Peterson could cause other police officers elsewhere to be “deprived of their liberty” and face decades in prison “just because it is discovered after the fact that things could have been “. it was treated differently, “Mark Eiglarsh, the deputy’s former lawyer, said in an email.
Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said police department policies, procedures and training will be examined to see if field officers in Uvalde followed them.
If they did, and criminal charges are still pending, he said he would send a creepy message to police across the country. “If you follow your procedures, they will still charge you. So what’s the point of having paperwork?” she said.
But Jorge Colina, a former Miami police chief, wants to know more about what was going on in the minds of school officials while the boss told them to wait in the lobby.
“Did anyone challenge the decision there?” He said. “Did anyone object at least?”
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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Uvalde, Texas; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Mike Balsamo in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.
© 2022 The Associated Press