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Pain aggravated by police actions
A report released in January found that Texas police had missed 10 opportunities to arrest the man who killed Garcia and 20 others during the 2022 massacre.
In findings that further angered victims’ families, an independent investigation last week acknowledged errors by authorities but ultimately defended the actions of local police.
The former mayor of Uvalde, who had ordered an investigation into police actions, said Friday he was surprised by the report officers defended and believes the interim chief on the scene had failed during the response to the shooting.
“What I’ve seen so far is not exactly what I expected,” said Don McLaughlin, who resigned as mayor of the small Texas city last year and is now the Republican candidate for a seat in the state Legislature.
In the nearly two years since the shooting, families have accused police of a leadership vacuum during the 77 minutes between gunman Salvador Ramos arriving at the school and police confronting him.
Part of the delay was because officers spent 40 minutes searching for a key to a shared classroom they believed was locked, even though it had been open.
CCTV footage from the school showed one officer stopping to check his phone while another applied hand sanitiser as armed police waited in the hallway.