UVALDE, Texas – The word “coward” was shouted from the audience as Uvalde city council members listened to the findings of another independent investigation into the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May 2022.
The report was commissioned by the city and was narrowly focused on whether city police officers responded appropriately and whether any city policies were violated.
Retired Austin police organized crime detective Jesse Prado delivered the findings through what appeared to be a series of pre-prepared questions. Prado said the initial officers responding to the shooting made good-faith attempts to engage the shooter. He added that after officers took gunfire and retreated, they lacked keys to the classroom, proper breaching tools, or a “rifle-rated” shield to re-engage the shooter. Prado said officers did not have a tactical advantage over the shooter, who he said had a wider field of view through a window in the classroom to shoot at any approaching officers.
After a less than hour-long presentation to the council, Prado left the meeting, which enraged parents in the audience who were waiting to voice their thoughts on the report. Many screamed for Prado to be brought back into the meeting so he could hear comments from parents and family members. Prado returned but did not address any comments.
“You said that he was waiting to shoot them like the video games? Of course, that’s why they line up, is it not? So that the first one can take it and the others can take this person down? You said that it was best, that there was no way to go in, it was for their safety. It was not for the safety of children. How dare you!” said Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed in the attack. “They chose their lives over the lives of children and teachers, and there is no policy change that will eliminate their fear and their hesitation to do what is right in the positions they serve. And for that, they should be terminated.”
Brett Cross, Uziyah Garcia’s father, was also in the audience and spoke alongside a Robb Elementary student who survived the attack.
“I want you to look at this child because this child survived. This child was shot and he sat in there for 77 minutes while those *expletive* cowards did nothing. You said that that was in good faith, and I’m going to reiterate that point, good faith. Good faith is 77 minutes?” Cross said.
Prado said there were rampant communication failures that led to responding officers not getting accurate information from officers inside the school. He said a memorandum of understanding between the city and school district put the responsibility of incident command on the school’s former police chief, Pete Arredondo. Prado told council members an incident command post wasn’t set up outside the school because officers were dealing with parents who tried to get inside the school during the more than hour-long stand-off.
Prado did say he felt the city’s SWAT team needed to be disbanded until officers could receive more training. Another recommendation involved making sure city officers who help patrol campuses have keys to all classrooms.
“I do believe this is going to cause more confusion. I do believe this is going to cause more division and cause more hateful rhetoric,” said Mike Matranga, a retired US Secret Service agent. “What just happened is he re-traumatized everyone involved in that press conference.”
Matranga is the former head of security for Texas City ISD and he now runs a company, M6 Global Defense, that specializes in safeguarding school campuses. Matranga was highly critical of the report saying “It was not fruitful at all.” Matranga also disagreed “100 percent” with the findings that city police officers’ not attempting to re-engage with the shooter after fellow officers took gunfire was appropriate because they lacked a tactical advantage and breaching tools.
“SWAT tactics and preservation of life tactics as we used in the Secret Service are completely different,” said Matranga. “This is a service that you give to your community and in the act of that service, you may have to sacrifice yourself. I cannot think of a greater cause to sacrifice oneself than to save the lives of 19 children and two educators.”