Acting Uvalde police chief Lt > 자유게시판

Acting Uvalde police chief Lt.

Mariano Pargas has been placed on leave after a preliminary report on the school shooting by the  House investigative committee found 'multiple systemic failures' and poor leadership.

Lead investigator and  state Rep.

Dustin Burrows argued Robb Elementary was 'not adequately prepared for the risk of a school shooter' and warned the same is true of many schools across the U.S.

On Sunday, Lt. Mariano Pargas, who was acting Uvalde Police Department chief the day of the shooting, was placed on leave.

Robb Elementary School Police Chief Peter Arredondo was also at the scene, standing outside the classroom, trying to negotiate with gunman Salvador Ramos.

The committee claimed 'multiple systemic failures' witnessed in Uvalde are found 'across the entire state and country' and the systems in place 'are something that we can and must improve.'

The investigative committee released its 77-page investigative report Sunday, marking the most exhaustive attempt so far to determine why it took more than an hour for police to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School on May 24.

The report blasted 'system failures and egregious poor decision making' by nearly all those in power during the attack and slammed law enforcement for 'failing to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety'.

Lt.

Mariano Pargas (left), who was acting Uvalde police chief of May 24, has been placed on administrative leave. He was placed on leave following the release of the preliminary report (right) by the Texas House investigative committee probing the elementary school shooting

Burrows - joined by committee members Rep. Joe Moody and former Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman during a Sunday night press conference - addressed the failures.

'That day several officers in the hallway or in that building, knew or should have known there was dying in that classroom,' he told the audience.

'And they should've done more, acted with urgency. Tried the door handles, tried to go in through the windows, try to distract him, try to do something to address the situation.'

He argued law enforcement leadership both inside and outside the school highlighted how the community was not prepared for the massacre. 

'In hindsight, we can we can say that Robb Elementary was not adequately prepared for the risk of a school shooter,' Burrows stated, noting that schools across the nation are believed the face the same challenges: 'This is a wider problem.' 

'We will all look and say 'well that's the way it was in Uvalde, it's different here.' Well let me say, the people of Uvalde before this - they felt that.

That's the false sense of security I worry about,' he said. 'Some of the same systems we found here that failed that day are across the entire state and country.'

'I do not want to say because of one thing or person here it could not happen elsewhere.
I think that's a disservice and not respectful thing to do.'

Lead investigator and Republican state Rep.

Dustin Burrows argued during a press conference Sunday (pictured) that Robb Elementary was 'not adequately prepared for the risk of a school shooter' and warned the same is true of many schools across the U.S.

Rep.

Joe Moody (left) said the report demonstrates a call to action and how the 'systems are something that we can and must improve.' Former Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman (right) added: 'If you're not willing to put the lives of the people you serve - those children - before your own, in my view, you should find another job'

Rep.

Moody, a Democrat, echoed Burrows' concerns and said the findings should act as a call to change legislation. 

'What happened here is complicated,' Moody said. 'But there's also a call to action in this report, because systems are something that we can and must improve.'

The committee members did not blame specific individuals for the failures, but said they believe the responding law enforcement should be help accountable for mistakes made during the shooting. 

'There were officers in that building, who knew or should have known, more needed to be done,' Burrows said.

'There were also officers who should have seen some of the chaos going on in a least at a minimum, if they didn't take over command or tried to assume command, they shouldn't began asking questions, or offer their support and guidance, and eventually maybe they would have gotten command to have a better response.'

'If somebody failed to exercise, their training, if somebody knew there were victims in there being killed or dying, and did not do more.

I believe those agencies will have to find accountability for those officers.'

Guzman added: 'The report says if you're not willing to put the lives of the people you serve - those children - before your own, in my view, you should find another job.'

Michael Brown holds protest signs demanding accountability from law enforcement as the Texas House investigative committee prepared to present it's full report on the shootings at Robb Elementary School

Uvalde leadership seemingly agreed with the committee's call for accountability, as evidenced by Mayor Don McLaughlin placing Lt.

Pargas on leave.

'The city has a responsibility to evaluate the response to the incident by the Uvalde Police Department, which includes Lt. Pargas' role as the acting Chief,' McLaughlin penned in a statement Sunday.

'This administrative leave is to investigate whether Lt.

Pargas is responsible for taking commend on May 24th, what specific actions Lt. Pargas took to establish that command, and whether it was even feasible given all the agencies involved and other possible policy violations.'

The mayor said he agreed with with the committee's finding that 'there was a failure of command' on May 24, but alleges officials still have 'further questions as to who is responsible for taking command.'

'Each agency there had senior level commanders on site,' McLaughlin said.

'We want to know which agency took what specific actions to take command, and where did the critical breakdown occur.' 

McLaughlin revealed the city will be conducting an internal investigation into the police department's actions, policies and procedures. 

He says the investigation will be underway once the Texas Department of Public Safety provides city officials with requested reports, official statements from officers and other pertinent documentation. 

The city's probe will also include a 'specific review' of Lt.

Pargas' actions.

'As Mayor of Uvalde, the City only has authority over its own police force. Which is why I support the City's decision to place Lt. Pargas on administrative leave and conduct a full investigation,' McLaughlin stated.

'However, it is imperative that each agency onsite at Robb School that day commits to the same process and investigates their highest ranking, onsite officers' actions.

He concluded: 'The City and its Police Department strive for transparency and are done waiting for the District Attorney and DPS to value our community's need for answers.'

Mayor Don McLaughlin announced Sunday that Lt.

Pargas had been placed on leave and aid he agreed with with the committee's finding that 'there was a failure of command' on May 24, but alleges officials still have 'further questions as to who is responsible for taking command'

The Texas legislators' probe of the Uvalde school shooting found state and federal cops were largely responsible for the vile massacre.

'Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any 'villains' in the course of its investigation,' the report stated.

'Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making.'

'The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon.'

The better trained and equipped responders failed to exert the leadership needed when local officers were out of their depth, the Texas House committee probe said.

The 149 US Border Patrol agents and 91 state police were among nearly 400 on the day who should have helped with the 'unfolding chaos', the file noted.

But the report slammed them for 'failing to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety'.

Some of the litany of errors in the report included:

• Cops failed to follow the active shooter doctrine imposed after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre by not engaging with Ramos;
• The school's safety protocol for keeping doors to classrooms locked and shut during school hours was not adhered to;
• Around 47 'lockdown' events when police chased migrants near the school that came before the shooting made staff desensitized to react;
• Ramos gave numerous hints he was going to go on a shooting spree before May 24, posting online cryptic messages related to violent actions;
• Officials undermined public trust in the investigation into the massacre by making false statements about what happened.

The report described 'shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement' and 'an overall lackadaisical approach' by the authorities. 

'There was an overall lackadaisical approach by law enforcement at the scene,' the report read, 'For many, that was because they were given and relied upon inaccurate information. For others, they had enough information to know better.' 

It stated officers 'failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,' amidst a chaotic response scene where the people in positions of authority assumed somebody else was in charge.

Though Uvalde school police chief Peter Arredondo did not step up to the duties that were expected of him, the report wrote, better trained and experienced state and federal authorities failed to help local police who were out of their element. 

'These local officials were not the only ones expected to supply the leadership needed during this tragedy,' the report noted, 'Hundreds of responders from numerous law enforcement agencies - many of whom were better trained and better equipped than the school district police - quickly arrived on the scene.'

'In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post,' the report said.

'Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance.'

The report opened with a tribute describing each victim killed by Ramos in the massacre

The report also found that the Robb Elementary School failed to adhere to a number of basic safety protocols, which included a lack of keys leading to teachers regularly leaving doors unlocked or propping them open.

Door and lock maintenance did not receive adequate attention from the school district, the report noted, pointing out that though the lock in one of the rooms where the shooting took place was known to be unreliable, it was not repaired.

'In particular the locking mechanism to Room 111 was widely known to be faulty, yet it was not repaired,' the report said. 

'The problem with locking the door had been reported to school administration, yet no one placed a written work order for a repair.' 

Unreliable Wi-Fi in parts of the school also led to a poor use of an app intended to notify the school of a lockdown in the event of an emergency. 

Teachers also often responded without urgency to lockdown notifications on the app because they were desensitized by its overuse in situations involving nearby border patrol activity.  

Robb Elementary is located about one hour from the US-Mexico border, and teachers would often be notified about illegal migrants who were being pursued by border patrol in the area. 

There were 47 'lockdown' events at the school between May and February, 90% of which concerned border patrol activity. 

The Active Shooter Response Card officers are supposed to follow.

The investigation committee found that many of the basic steps outlined in it, such as assuming a position of command, were not completed by officers at the scene of the shooting

The emergency report app used by the Uvalde school district.

The report found that its overuse from frequent nearby border patrol issues led to teachers not taking the app and its protocols seriously

The report also found that gunman Salvador Ramos provided a number of warning signs that he was dangerous, but that nobody did anything to address them. 

In one incident, Ramos sent someone a message on Instagram on April 2 saying 'Are you still gonna remember me in 50 something days?'

'Probably not' the person responded.

'Hmm alright we'll see in may,' Ramos said back.

He was also obsessed with gore and violent sex online, posting videos of suicides and beheadings, and harassing women who he played video games with. 

He was also fired from his job at a Whataburger after threatening a female coworker. 

Despite his violent behavior, no red flags were raised about Ramos and he was never reported to authorities. 

 

An April text conversation between Salvador Ramos and a friend who proposed traveling to Uvalde for a visit later in the summer.

'If it's before may 23rd I'm down,' Ramos wrote. He committed the massacre on May 24

A conversation Ramos had with an online friend based in Germany in which he described shooting his grandmother in the face in real time

The report also pointed out that state officials undermined public trust in the investigations in the early days after the shooting by issuing a number of false statements. 

One day after the shooting, a Uvalde Police Department official who was tasked with briefing Texas governor Greg Abbott on the events fainted before the meeting. 

As a result DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon gave the briefing to the governor based on second hands accounts. 

That incident lead to Abbott then giving the public a 'false narrative' at a press conference, in which he said that the shooting lasted only 40 minutes after police 'rapidly devised a plan, stacked up and neutralized the attacker.'

The report follows weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and law enforcement who were on the scene at Robb Elementary on May 24.

The findings in the report are expected to offer the most complete account to date of the bewildering inaction by fully armed police officers who massed in the hallway of the school but waited more than an hour before breaching a fourth-grade classroom. 

The report is the result of one of several investigations into the shooting, including another led by the Justice Department. 

A report earlier this month by tactical experts at Texas State University alleged that a Uvalde police officer had a chance to stop the gunman before he went inside the school armed with an AR-15.

But in an example of the conflicting statements and disputed accounts since the shooting, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has said that never happened. 

That report had been done at the request of Texas DPS, which McLaughlin has increasingly criticized and accused of trying to minimize the role of its troopers during the massacre.

Steve McCraw, the head of DPS, has called the police response an abject failure.  

The location of Uvalde in relation to the Mexican border (left) and a map showing the location of Robb Elementary school compared to the center of Uvalde (right), as seen in the investigation committee's report

A pair of maps showing the Robb Elementary school and its surrounding property, and a floor plan showing the inside of the school, as seen in the investigation committee's report

Details of the report came as family members of the victims met with Texas lawmakers investigating the massacre on Sunday, days after incriminating footage showing the police's botched response to the shooting was leaked.  

The video - which was released by KVUE and the Austin American-Statesman newspaper - showed police took cover in a hallway for 77 minutes before they stormed the two joined classrooms and exchanged fire with him.

Authorities said in May that frantic children inside the classrooms called 911 at least six times while officers waited in the hallway.

Relatives of the victims viewed the full footage during the meeting and reviewed the committee's findings on the shooting.

Investigation committee chairman Rep.

Dustin Burrows said he planned to give family members the opportunity to privately view the footage before it was made public, and said he was disappointed media outlets leaked the footage instead. 

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin angrily characterized the leak of the video - in which Ramos can be heard gunning down the children -  as 'one of the most chicken things I've ever seen.'

The outlets that released the footage said they published the video 'to provide transparency to the community, showing what happened as officials waited to enter that classroom.'

A split view of the hallway before the dozens of other cops arrived shows the officers with their rifles drawn, standing behind shields, thirty minutes after the shooting began, yards away from the classroom 

The video showed in harrowing detail how police lingered in the hallway outside the classroom where Ramos was holed up for over an hour as they were ordered to stand down by Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Peter Arredondo.

Arredondo was placed on leave after the shooting before resigning from his post.

Calls for police accountability have grown in Uvalde since the shooting.

So far, Arredondo is the only officer from the scene of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history is known to be on leave. 

While Ramos could be heard unloading shots in a classroom, officers could be seen running away from the gunfire, checking their phones, helping themselves to hand sanitizer, and exchanging high fives.

At one point an officer whose daughter was inside the classroom was seen being restrained by fellow officers preventing him from attempting to rescue his daughter.

The girl's father, an Uvalde County Sheriff Deputy, was one of dozens of officers told not engage the shooter, forced to wait outside as shots and screams rang out.

The footage released Tuesday shows cops holding the dad back as cops waited outside for 77 minutes