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AG Garland on DOJ Uvalde report
in January 18, 2024, the Justice Department released its report on "failures" of the police response to the Uvalde school shooting.
A new DOJ report on the Uvalde, Texas school shooting was released on Thursday, outlining "cascading failures" in law enforcement’s handling of one of the deadliest massacres at a school in American history.
The mass shooting in May of 2022 left 19 Robb Elementary School students dead, along with two teachers. In the months since, local and state law enforcement has come under nationwide scrutiny and even ridicule for the 74 minutes it took officers to enter the school and kill the lone gunman.
State investigations have already uncovered a series of flaws in the building's security and the law enforcement response, finding the 376 federal, state, and local first responders failed "to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety."
Robb Elementary law enforcement response
The new Justice Department report, the most comprehensive federal accounting of the haphazard police response, identified a vast array of problems from failed communication and leadership to inadequate technology and training that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have.
Echoing findings of the previous investigations, the report said officials who responded to the deadly school shooting "demonstrated no urgency" in setting up a command post and failed to treat the killings as an active shooter situation.
"As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers — many of whom had been shot — were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
File: Police officers speak near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 27, 2022. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Uvalde school shooting timeline
In June of 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety released a detailed timeline of the shooting and the law enforcement response based on surveillance footage, Uvalde Police Department 911 recordings and phone recordings, and law enforcement body-worn camera footage.
It took 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 8 seconds from when police entered the school to the time they confronted the gunman and terminated him, according to the timed log.
Below is a detailed timeline of events surrounding the Uvalde school shooting released by Texas DPS. (WARNING: Contains explicit language that may not be suitable for all readers.)
11:28:25 - Suspect crashes vehicle into ditch
11:29:02 - Two males from funeral home move toward crash
11:29:20 - Teacher calls 911 and reports and man with a gun
11:31:36 - Suspect shooting in between vehicle at school
11:31:43 - Patrol car accelerates into school parking lot, drives by shooter
11:32:08 - Multiple shots fired by suspect while outside the school
11:33:00 - Suspect enters the school through the west door
11:33:24 - Suspect begins shooting into classroom 111/112 from hallway
11:33:32 - Suspect enters, exits, and re-enters room 111/112
11:35:55 - 3 Uvalde PD Officers enter west door (including 2 rifles)
11:36:00 - 2 UCISD officers (including Chief Arredondo) and 2 Uvalde PD officers enter through the south door
11:36:03 - 3 Uvalde PD officers and 1 UCISD officer enter through west door
11:37:00 - Suspect gunfire injures officers approaching classroom doors
11:38:37 - Unknown Officer: "He's contained in this office."
11:40:23 - Chief Arredondo calls Uvalde PD landline
11:40:58 - Suspect Gunfire (1 round)
11:41:08 - Uvalde PD Officer: "We believe that he is barricaded in one of the offices, there's still shooting."
11:41:30 - Dispatch asks if door is locked, to which a Uvalde PD Officer replies, "I am not sure but we have a hooligan to break it."
11:41:55 - 4 First Responders enter from the east hallway: 2 Constables, Fire Marshal, UPD Officer
11:42:24 - 1 DPS Trooper and 2 UPD Officers enter from east hallway
11:44:00 - Suspect Gunfire (1 round)
11:44:28 - Uvalde PD Officer: "Have some officers that are available get everybody back."
11:48:18 - UCISD Officer Ruben Ruiz, husband of one of the teachers in the classroom, enters the west door and is heard telling officers, "She says she is shot."
11:50:53 - Unknown officer says, "They need to get out of the hallway," to which Uvalde PD Officer responds, "Chief is in there, Chief is in charge right now hold on."
11:51:13 - 7 Border Patrol Agents enter the west door
11:52:08 - FIRST ballistic shield enters the west door
11:52:49 - UPD Officer: "Units just showing up can you help with crowd control."
11:53:10 - Unknown officer informs a DPS Special Agent that all they need right now is perimeter. Someone comments about whether there are still kids inside to which the DPS Special Agent responds, "If there is they just need to go in."
11:54:14 - DPS Special Agent enters the west building and is directed on where the suspect focus is. He asks an unknown officer, "Are kids still in there?"
The unknown officer responds, "It is unknown at this time."
11:54:15 - Uvalde PD Officer: "He's in classroom 111 or 112 But Chief is making contact with him. No one has made contact with him."
11:56:49 - Unknown Officer: "Y'all don't know if there's kids in there?"
DPS SA: "If there's kids in there, we need to go in there."
Unknown Officer: "What's that?"
DPS SA: "If there's kids in there, we need to go in there."
Unknown Officer: "Whoever is in charge will determine that."
11:56:52 - PD Channel Recording: "Again it is critical for everybody to let PD take point on this."
11:58:12 - After an unknown officer asks where the shooter is, another unknown officer advises, "The school chief of police is in there with him."
11:58:24 - DPS SA says, "It sounds like a hostage rescue situation. Sounds like a (undercover) rescue, they should probably go in."
12:01:13 - DPS SA indicates he wants to go clear more rooms. An unknown Officer replies, "Don't you think we should have a supervisor approve that?" to which DPS SA replies,
"He's not my supervisor."
12:03:50 - 911 call from student inside the classroom begins
12:03:51 - SECOND ballistic shield enters the west door
12:04:16 - THIRD ballistic shield enters the west door
12:09:24 - Uvalde PD Officer: "Go around and get the master key to the rooms"
12:10:21 - Elements of BORTAC begin arriving at elementary school
12:11:00 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo requests master key
12:14:45 - Uvalde ID Chief Arredondo gives instructions to officers to have a sniper on the east roof
12:15:27 - BORTAC Member arrives in west building
12:16:24 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "I just need a key.
12:17:22 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "Tell them to fucking wait. No one comes in."
12:20:46 - FOURTH ballistic shield enters west door
12:21:08 - Suspect gunfire (4 rounds)
12:21:30 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "Can you go get a breaching tool? Like for a trailer house?"
12:23:21 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "We've lost two kids. These walls are thin. If he starts shooting we're going to lose more kids. I hate to say we have to put those to the side right now."
12:24:00 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo attempts to communicate with the suspect in English and Spanish.
12:26:14 - Unknown officer. "There's a teacher shot in there," to which a Uvalde PD Officer replies, "I know."
12:27:08 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "People are going to ask why we're taking so long. We're trying to preserve the rest of the life."
12:27:29 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "Do we have a team ready to go? Do we have a team ready to go? Have at it."
12:28:21 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "There is a window over there obviously. The door is probably going to be locked. That is the nature of this place. l am going to get some more keys to test"
12:28:53 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "These master keys aren't working here, bro. We have master keys and they're not working.'
12:30:00 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "Okay. We've cleared out everything except for that room. We still have people down there just past the flag to the right. But, uh, we're ready to breach but that door is locked."
12:33:44 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "I say we breach through those windows and shoot his fucking head off through the windows."
12:35:39 - Hooligan breaching tool enters west door
12:38:20 - Uvalde ID Chief Arredondo attempts to communicate with the suspect in English and Spanish.
12:41:58 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "Just so you understand, we think there are some injuries in there. And so you know what we did, we cleared off the rest of the building so we wouldn't have anymore besides what's already in there, obviously."
12:42:11 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "We're having a fucking problem getting into the room because it is locked. He's got an AR-15 and he's shooting everywhere like crazy. So, he's stopped."
Responders stack in hallway south of Rooms 111 & 112 (Investigative Committee on the Robb Elementary Shooting)
12:43:20 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "They gotta get that fucking door open, bro. They can't get that door open. We need more keys or something."
12:46:18 - Uvalde ISD Chief Arredondo: "If ya'll are ready to do it, you do it but you should distract him out that window."
12:47:57 - Sledge Hammer enters from east hallway
12:50:03 - Breach and termination gunfire
FOX 26's Carolina Sanchez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.