“These tragedies can devastate communities,” said John Cohen, a former senior Homeland Security official who now works for ABC News. “One of the ways in which the healing process can begin is for the community to have a clear understanding of what happened and what will be done to prevent something similar from happening again.” As the families of the victims rest their loved ones, Uvalde residents continue to hope for answers. They may start taking a break on Tuesday when a Texas committee meets to hear testimony about the shooting. Here are five questions that remain unanswered:
1) Was the classroom door locked?
From the very first days after the attack, law enforcement officials said their response was hampered by the very measure taken for the safety of children during an active-duty sniper event: a locked door. Officials said the gunman entered the classroom and immediately locked the door behind him, keeping police outside the room while they waited for spare supplies, supplies and a key that could open the “hard” door that could not be kicked. . The gunman remained in the classroom for 77 minutes as 19 police officers waited in the hallway – and many more outside the building – after the incident commander mistakenly believed that the situation had turned from an active gunman into a blockade, according to law enforcement authorities said. The commander of the incident, Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, said in an interview that he was waiting in the hallway as a janitor brought dozens of keys, which he tried at an adjoining classroom door looking for a master key – but none worked. . Finally an employee came. But now surveillance video shows police never attempting to open the door to the gunman’s classroom, according to a San Antonio Express News report confirmed by ABC News sources, although ABC News did not look into the matter. video. While the school classroom doors are designed to lock automatically when closed, according to the report, new evidence suggests the door may have been unlocked all the time, despite police assuming it was locked. Police in the hallway also had access to a “crowbar-like tool” that could open the door regardless of whether it was locked or not, the report said.
2) Did an active sniper alert reach the Robb community?
In recent decades, with mass shootings and advances in technology, school principals and law enforcement across the country have been trying to enforce security protocols designed to alert staff and students in real time to a possible threatening. At Robb Elementary, shortly before the gunman entered the building on the day of the shooting, a teacher used his smartphone to activate a notification via the school’s emergency response app – called Raptor – according to the company that built the alert system. . But whether the alert reached the Robb community successfully remains unclear. Arnulfo Reyes, a teacher in one of the classrooms who was attacked by the gunman, said that sometimes the Raptor app pinged him with alerts about nearby incidents – but that no alert came on the day of the attack. Police walk near Robb Elementary School after a shooting on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Dario Lopez-Mills / AP “You could hear the shots, but there was no announcement,” Reyes told ABC News in an exclusive interview this month. “I got nothing, and I heard nothing.” At 11:43 a.m. – Ten minutes after the start of the riot – Rob Elementary School posted on Facebook that the campus had entered a lockdown “due to shootings in the area”.
3) Were the officers informed about the 911 calls coming from children in the classroom?
While police were waiting outside the classroom for 77 minutes, children who were still alive in the adjacent classes of the armed man was repeatedly called in 911 begging for help, officials said. There have been numerous calls to 911 from children inside, officials said, including a “Send police now” appeal. Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McGraw said it appeared the information may not have been passed on to local officers, and Arredonto said in an interview that he did not know 911 calls while waiting in the hallway outside the classroom because He made. does not have his own radio – which he said he deliberately left behind because he thought it would slow him down. “This question will be answered,” McGraw said in the days following the shooting, when asked directly if the ground commander had received 911 information. I do not have the detailed interview at the moment. “ Video from ABC News last month, taken outside Rob Elementary School as the massacre unfolded, appeared to capture an 911 sender alerting police on stage of 911 calls received from children in class.
4) Were the officers properly trained?
Seventy-seven minutes passed before the gunman entered the Robb Elementary until the police raided the classroom and ended his deadly siege. Law enforcement officials have since faced intense scrutiny for their failure to act more quickly, raising questions about their level of preparedness. Two months before the mass shooting, the Uvalde school district hosted an all-day training for local police and other school law enforcement officers, focusing on “active sniper response.” But key training protocols – including those related to communication channels and the chain of command – have not been heeded, law enforcement officials later said. Failure to secure significant equipment, including shields and high-powered weapons, may also have contributed to delays. Eventually, police at the scene used a key recovered from a janitor to unlock the classroom door where the gunman had locked himself. Cohen, a former Homeland Security official, said the fact that officers had to resort to such a simple method of disorderly conduct after such a long time reflects badly on the officers’ plans. “When developing an emergency plan, it is deeply troubling that basic equipment – such as keys or other tamper devices – appeared to be unavailable,” Cohen said.
5) Do law enforcement authorities cooperate with the investigation?
As investigations into the police response continue, questions have arisen as to whether Arredondo – who has emerged as a key figure in the police response – is cooperating. Texas House Committee Chairman Dustin Burroughs said Friday that Arredonto had not yet agreed to testify before the committee, but said Monday that all law enforcement agencies are working together. Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo speaks at a news conference after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022. Mikala Compton / Austin American-Statesman through USA Today Networks, FILE “The Ovalde police department was cooperative,” Barrows said. Commenting on Tuesday’s hearing, he said: “We will hear from another officer with the Uvalde ISD [school district]. We will hear from a member of the Department of Public Safety on the ground. “ “I want to at least congratulate all the law enforcement agencies that cooperated and provided the witnesses we requested,” Barrows said. On May 31, shortly after the shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Arredondo had not responded “for days to a request for a follow-up interview” as part of the agency’s investigation into the police response to the massacre. Arredondo’s lawyer disputed the allegations, telling the Texas Tribune that Arredondo had given several interviews to the DPS in the days following the shooting, but could not come for another interview when asked because he was covering shifts for other officers. “At no point did he announce his reluctance to cooperate with the investigation,” Hyde said in an interview with the Texas Tribune. “His phone was flooded with calls and messages from numbers he did not recognize and he may have missed calls from the DPS, but he nevertheless maintained the daily telephone interaction with the DPS who helped with the logistics as requested.”
