Uvalde school massacre: Senior police officer on leave

An 18-year-old shot dead 19 children and two teachers in Texas in May. The police have been heavily criticized for their hesitant deployment – a report now accuses them of systemic failure. An officer has been placed on leave.

The investigations by a committee of inquiry into the actions of the police in the school massacre in Uvalde have resulted in the first personnel consequences. Officer Mariano Pargas, who was the Texas city’s acting police chief on the day of the crime, has been placed on leave, Mayor Don McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin announced an inquiry into whether Pargas should have taken command of the mission that day. The city will also release all official body camera footage taken during the school massacre.

Lack of leadership skills and effective communication

Prior to the police officer’s leave of absence, the committee issued a May 24 report accusing state and federal security forces of “systemic failure.” Almost 400 officers from various law enforcement agencies rushed to the primary school in the town of Uvalde, but did not intervene in time, the report said.

There was a lack of leadership and effective communication, the report said. The lack of guidance may have contributed to the loss of life, as the perpetrator was able to continue shooting for over an hour, even though the emergency services were already at the scene. The report found the 376 police officers from various law enforcement agencies who rushed to the school “total inaction.” The bottom line is that they failed to “put the rescue of the innocent above their own safety,” according to their training.

“If there’s only one thing I can tell you, it’s that there have been multiple systemic failures,” Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows said at a news conference. The report on the police operation on May 24 was written by a committee of inquiry in the Texas House of Representatives and distributed to family members on Sunday.

19 children and two teachers died

An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in the small town. The attacker had shot at his victims in two connected classrooms with an assault rifle. The police were heavily criticized for their hesitant intervention. After the fact, she repeatedly changed her statements about the course of events. It finally turned out that the police only overpowered and killed the perpetrator around 75 minutes after their arrival.

The 77-page report went on to say that the rescue of innocent victims was not put before one’s own safety. The mistakes made are not due to a lack of emergency personnel, but to a lack of leadership skills and effective communication. Several police officers described the scenes at the crime scene as chaotic and did not know who was in charge. Nobody took the initiative and took command, it said.