In Uvalde, closeness complicates accountability for shooting
UVALDE, Texas — After the massacre at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School in May, Jesse Rizo was worried about his old friend, police chief Pete Arredondo. Blame for the botched police response was being directed heavily at Arredondo when Rizo texted him just days after the shooting: “Been thinking of and...
Uvalde schools look to fire Chief Arredondo after shooting
UVALDE, Texas — Facing massive public pressure, Uvalde’s top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students. The South Texas city’s...
Two decades of shooter response strategy ignored in Uvalde
A total of 376 officers converged on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — more than the entire police force in a midsize American city like Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or Tempe, Arizona. But for more than 70 minutes on May 24, not one stopped the shooter. Amid the sounds of...
Report: ‘Systemic failures’ in Uvalde school massacre
UVALDE, Texas — Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, but “systemic failures” created a chaotic scene that lasted more than an hour before the gunman who took 21 lives was finally confronted and killed, according to a report from investigators released...
Video shows police milling in hallway during Uvalde massacre
AUSTIN, Texas — Surveillance footage captured the gunman in the Uvalde school shooting enter the building with a AR-15 style rifle and later shows officers in body armor milling in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The video published Tuesday by the...
Report details 3 missed opportunities to slow, stop Uvalde gunman
DALLAS — A report released Wednesday details three missed opportunities to slow — or even stop — the Uvalde gunman before he entered Robb Elementary School, where he ultimately killed 19 students and two teachers in Texas’ deadliest school shooting. The 24-page report by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response...
Uvalde schools’ police chief resigns from City Council
UVALDE, Texas — The Uvalde school district’s police chief has stepped down from his position in the City Council just weeks after being sworn in following allegations that he erred in his response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Chief...
Texas top cop: Uvalde police could’ve ended rampage early on
AUSTIN, Texas — Police had enough officers and firepower on the scene of the Uvalde school massacre to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building, and they would have found the door to the classroom where he was holed up unlocked if they had bothered to...
Report: Police at Texas school had rifles earlier than known
UVALDE, Texas — Multiple police officers stood in a hallway at Robb Elementary School armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield within 19 minutes of a gunman arriving at the campus, according to documents reviewed by the Austin American-Statesman, a devastating new revelation deepening questions about why police...
Texas committee still trying to question Uvalde police
UVALDE, Texas — Police in Uvalde still haven’t committed to speaking to a Texas House committee investigating the May 24 massacre at an elementary school and the law enforcement response that day, the lawmaker leading the probe said Friday. Republican state Rep. Dustin Burrows said his committee was in conversations...
Mourners say goodbye to Uvalde teacher and her husband
UVALDE, Texas — Mourners gathered Wednesday at a Catholic church to say goodbye to Robb Elementary School teacher Irma Garcia — who died in the shooting at the Uvalde, Texas, grade school — and her husband, Joe — who died two days later from a heart attack. Nineteen children and...
Guns overtake cars as leading cause of death for U.S. kids
For decades, the biggest threat kids faced growing up came from the automobiles they happily hopped into every day for a trip to school, the store or soccer practice. Now, it’s gunfire. As the country mourns its latest school shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas, it also has reached a grim...
Uvalde school police chief says he’s still cooperating
UVALDE, Texas — The school district police chief who served as on-site commander during last week’s deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, said Wednesday that he’s talking daily with investigators, contradicting claims from state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating. In a brief interview, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police...
After Uvalde, holiday weekend sees shootings nationwide
Even as the nation reeled over the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, multiple mass shootings happened elsewhere over the Memorial Day weekend in areas both rural and urban. Single-death incidents still accounted for most gun fatalities. Gunfire erupted in the predawn...
‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s role
UVALDE, Texas — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief. It’s left residents in...
A dad’s anguish outside Texas school while shooting unfolded
UVALDE, Texas — Javier Cazares raced to his daughter’s school when he heard there was a shooting, leaving his truck running with the door open as he ran into the school yard. In his rush, he didn’t bring his gun. He spent the next 35 to 45 agonizing minutes scanning...
Justice Department to review response to Texas school shooting
UVALDE, Texas — The Justice Department said Sunday it will review the law enforcement response to the Texas school shooting, an unusual federal look back prompted by questions about the shifting and at times contradictory information from authorities that have enraged a community in shock and sorrow. Department spokesman Anthony...
Uvalde tells Biden to ‘do something’; he pledges ‘we will’
UVALDE, Texas — President Joe Biden sought Sunday to comfort a city grieving the killings of 19 elementary school pupils and two teachers at the hands of a lone gunman. Faced with chants of “do something” as he departed a church service to meet privately with the families, Biden responded:...
Governors diverge on gun control, school security efforts
As the U.S. mourns the victims of its latest mass shooting — 19 elementary school students and two teachers gunned down in Texas — Democratic governors are amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns. Many Republican governors are emphasizing a different solution: more security at schools. The divide among...
Long-distance hug: JCC, 10.27 Healing Partnership is collecting donations to help children in Uvalde
When unspeakable tragedy struck Mister Rogers’ neighborhood on that rainy Saturday morning in October 2018, it was the immediate outpouring of love that Rabbi Ron Symons recalled as an embrace for the healing process. Symons wants to pay that compassion forward to the ‘Burgh’s neighbors in Uvalde, Texas — through...
Student who survived Texas attack says she covered herself in friend’s blood, pretended to be dead
UVALDE, Texas — A young survivor of the massacre at a Texas elementary school said she covered herself with a friend’s blood and pretended to be dead while she waited for help to arrive. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she and a friend called 911 from her dead teacher’s...
Hundreds protest outside NRA convention in Texas days after massacre in Uvalde
HOUSTON — Hundreds of people protested for gun control outside the annual National Rifle Association convention here Friday, days after the country’s latest mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, chanting, “Protect our kids, not guns!” and hoisting signs that read, “No more thoughts and prayers,” and, “Your hobby isn’t worth our...
Official: Girl told 911 ‘send the police now’ as cops waited
Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this week’s attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, “Please send the police now,” as officers waited more than an hour to breach the classroom after following the gunman into the building, authorities said Friday....
Students who survived Texas school attack describe scene
UVALDE, Texas — A young survivor of the massacre at a Texas elementary school said she covered herself with a friend’s blood and pretended to be dead while she waited for help to arrive. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she and a friend called 911 from her dead teacher’s...
Husband of one of the teachers fatally shot at Uvalde school dies from heart attack
The husband of one of the fourth-grade teachers killed in the Uvalde school shooting Tuesday has died, according to multiple news reports. Irma Garcia, who was a 23-year veteran teacher at Robb Elementary School, was killed after an 18-year-old gunman entered the campus, barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom and...
