Next month will mark the second year since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The shooter took the lives of 19 students and two teachers. After waiting over an hour in the hallway of the school, the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit stormed the classroom and fatally shot the gunman.
Since the shooting, Texas officials and law enforcement personnel provided the public exaggerated accounts of their actions and attempted to prevent the news media from accessing and publishing the facts surrounding the botched response.
There is currently a grand jury investigation into the actions of some law enforcement officers that day that could seek criminal charges. The investigation is expected to be completed in May before the anniversary of the shooting. It’s been speculated that Uvalde Consolidated ISD’s former Police Chief Pete Arredondo could face an indictment in the coming days. Arredondo was identified as the incident commander during the shooting response, but he disputes that characterization. He later refused to resign and was then fired from his position at UCISD.
The Texas Tribune, ProPublica and FRONTLINE were honored with the 2024 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability for their reporting on the mishandling of the response to the Robb Elementary School shooting.
Guests:
Lomi Kriel and Lexi Churchill are two of the recipients of the 2024 Collier Prize for State Government Accountabilitytheir groundbreaking investigation into the Uvalde School Shooting.
For more than a year, Lomi Kriel, an investigative reporter with the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, led a team of reporters who examined video footage from two dozen bodycams and hundreds of hours of investigative interviews with 150 law enforcement officers to untangle the actions — and inactions — that led to the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children.
Reporter Lexi Churchill conducted two 50-state analyses to reach the alarming conclusion that more states require training for children and teachers on how to respond to active shooter situations than they do for the police expected to protect them.
Reporters Jinitzail Hernández, Jessica Priest, Perla Trevizo and Zach Despart also contributed to the series. Juanita Ceballos wrote and directed the FRONTLINE documentary.
"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, call833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org.
*This interview will be recorded on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.
