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Police Inaction Center of Uvalde Probe 05/28 09:08
The actions -- or more notably, the inaction -- of a school district police
chief and other law enforcement officers moved swiftly to the center of the
investigation into this week's shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,
(AP) -- The actions -- or more notably, the inaction -- of a school district
police chief and other law enforcement officers moved swiftly to the center of
the investigation into this week's shocking school shooting in Uvalde, Texas,
The delay in confronting the shooter -- who was inside the school for more
than an hour -- could lead to discipline, lawsuits and even criminal charges
against police.
The attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead in a fourth grade
classroom was the nation's deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, and
for three days police offered a confusing and sometimes contradictory timeline
that drew public anger and frustration.
By Friday, authorities acknowledged that students and teachers repeatedly
begged 911 operators for help while the police chief told more than a dozen
officers to wait in a hallway at Robb Elementary School. Officials said he
believed that the suspect was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and that
there was no longer an active attack.
The chief's decision -- and the officers' apparent willingness to follow his
directives against established active-shooter protocols -- prompted questions
about whether more lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop
the gunman, and who should be held responsible.
"In these cases, I think the court of public opinion is far worse than any
court of law or police department administrative trial," said Joe Giacalone, a
retired New York police sergeant. "This has been handled so terribly on so many
levels, there will be a sacrificial lamb here or there."
As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other
agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children
were in danger, two law enforcement officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been
authorized to talk publicly about the investigation.
One of the officials said audio recordings from the scene capture 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 wasn't clear why the
school chief ignored their warnings.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who at a news conference earlier in the week lauded
the police for saving lives, said he had been misled about the initial response
and promised there would be investigations into "exactly who knew what, when,
who was in charge" and what they did.
"The bottom line would be: Why did they not choose the strategy that would
have been best to get in there and to eliminate the killer and to rescue the
children?" Abbott said.
Criminal charges are rarely pursued against law enforcement in school
shootings. A notable exception was the former school resource officer accused
of hiding during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in
Parkland, Florida, that that left 17 people dead.
Potential administrative punishments -- meted out by the department itself
-- could range from a suspension or docked pay to forced resignation or
retirement or outright termination.
In terms of civil liability, the legal doctrine called "qualified immunity,"
which shields police officers from lawsuits unless their actions violate
clearly established laws, could also be at play in future litigation.
The Uvalde School District police chief, Pete Arredondo, decided that the
group of officers should wait to confront the assailant, on the belief that the
active attack was over, according to Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas
Department of Public Safety.
The crisis ended shortly after officers used keys from a janitor to open the
classroom door, entered the room and shot and killed Ramos.
Arredondo could not be reached for comment Friday, and Uvalde officers were
stationed outside his home, but they would not say why.
Prosecutors will have to decide whether Arredondo's decision and the
officers' inaction constituted a tragic mistake or criminal negligence, said
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who is a professor at Loyola Law
School in Los Angeles.
Levenson said prosecutors could bring state felony charges of criminally
negligent homicide, though she said federal civil rights charges would be
unlikely because they require intent.
"I don't know that we expect every officer to make a perfect decision on the
spot," she said. "But waiting this long -- given what we know about how
shooters act -- predictably leads to tragedy."
In the Parkland case, former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson is
scheduled to go to trial in September on charges of child neglect resulting in
great bodily harm, culpable negligence and perjury. He has said he did the best
he could at the time.
The "unprecedented and irresponsible" decision by Florida prosecutors to
bring a criminal case against Peterson might lead to other police elsewhere
being "stripped of their liberty" and facing decades in prison "solely because
a finding is made after the fact that things could have been handled
differently," Mark Eiglarsh, the former deputy's attorney, said in an email.
Maria Haberfeld, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New
York, said the police department's policies, procedures and training will be
scrutinized to see whether the officers on the ground in Uvalde followed them.
If they did, and criminal charges are still brought, she said it would send
a chilling message to police nationwide. "If you follow your procedures, you're
still brought up on charges. So what's the point of having procedures?" she
said.
But Jorge Colina, a former Miami police chief, wants to know more about what
was going through the minds of the officers inside the school as the chief told
them to wait in the hall.
"Did someone challenge the decision there?" he said. "Did someone raise an
objection at least?"
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