After 20 months, the City of Uvalde's independent investigation into its police response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School found that the city officers who responded were not to blame and acted in "good faith."
The report, which was released at a city council meeting last Thursday, was called for after this disastrous response to the school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Jesse Prado, the former Austin Police Department detective hired by Uvalde to conduct the investigation, said he would have recommended to "exonerate" Mariano Pargas, acting chief of the Uvalde Police Department on the day of the shooting.
Pargas ultimately resigned from the police department in November 2022. He's now a county commissioner.
Some 370 law enforcement personnel from 23 different agencies responded to the shooting, but waited more than an hour to confront and kill the gunman. Of those, 25 were from the Uvalde Police Department.
The city's report found that none of the 25 agents violated policy while responding.
This is the third report released into the shooting at Robb Elementary School. The earlier two came from the Texas House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The federal government did find “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training."
Family members of the shooting victims walked out of the meeting while the report was being presented signaling their rejection of the findings.
Guest:
Brett Cross is the father of Uziyah “Uzi” Garcia who died at the Robb Elementary Shooting.
Jesse Rizo lost his niece Jackie Cazares in the Robb Elementary School shooting in 2022.
Manuel Rizo lost his niece Jackie Cazares in the Robb Elementary School shooting in 2022.
"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255 or email thesource@tpr.org.
*This interview was recorded on Monday, March 11, 2024.
