Stefanie Dazio, The Associated Press Posted Saturday, May 28, 2022 at 8:58 AM EDT Last Updated on Saturday, May 28, 2022 4:15 PM EDT
The actions – or most notably the inaction – of a school district police chief and other law enforcement officers have become the focus of the investigation into this week’s shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
The delay in the shootout – which lasted more than an hour inside the school – could lead to discipline, lawsuits 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.
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.
The boss’s decision – and the officers’ apparent willingness to follow his directives against established active-fire shooter protocols – raised questions about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act more quickly to stop the gunman and who should be held accountable.
“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.”
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.
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.
“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. New York City defense attorney Paul Martin and Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington Police Executive Investigation Forum, said Saturday that they did not know of any other officers who had been criminally charged with failure to act. in a mass shooting.
Martin, who has represented police officers charged with murder, assault and other felonies, said he believes what happened in Uvalde is different from Parkland because officers waiting to confront the assailant were following orders. Martin said he does not believe they can be charged based on his command’s decisions.
As for the school district police chief who decided to wait, Martin said it would be a “very high bar” to charge him criminally because police officers have room to make tactical decisions.
“Families can sue the police for not acting. They can clearly be held civilly responsible,” he said. “I think it’s very doubtful that they can be prosecuted.”
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. Possible administrative penalties – imposed by the department itself – could range from a suspended suspension or salary to forced resignation or retirement, or permanent termination.
The families of most of those killed or injured in Parkland reached a $ 127.5 million deal with the U.S. Department of Justice because the FBI did not stop the gunman, although he had received information who intended to attack. Former Broward County MP Scot Peterson is due 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.
A federal judge dismissed all but one lawsuit against the school district and the sheriff’s office after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, ruling that the gunmen were responsible. The daughter of a teacher who died bleeding reached a $ 1.5 million settlement in her lawsuit against the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in 2002. At the time, police were much criticized for not entering school earlier.
“What Columbine taught us is that when you have an active shooter situation, waiting for additional resources will cause people to lose their lives,” Wexler said. “Here we are, 20 years after Columbine and this is the same problem that continues to challenge law enforcement.”
He said all departments should clearly write in their policies that a gunman should be confronted immediately in such situations.
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.
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?”
Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Uvalde, Texas; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Mike Balsamo in Washington, DC; and Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.