UVALDE, Texas — A new Department of Justice report gives the fullest picture yet of the "cascading failures" of law enforcement and the various agencies involved in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary shooting.
19 children and two teachers were killed when an 18-year-old gunman entered the Robb classroom with an AR-15 rifle. It took law enforcement 77 minutes to enter the classroom and take down the shooter.
The DOJ critical incident report released Thursday goes beyond the initial law enforcement failures inside the school and details failures of communication with parents who were desperately seeking information on their missing children. It shows officials gave confusing messaging, and parents were often treated with cruelty when seeking updates.
"In Uvalde, the death notification process outside of the hospital was similarly disorganized, chaotic, and at times perceived by victims’ family members as cruel," the report states.
The report states in one instance, family members of a deceased victim were told hours after the shooting that their child was at the school, giving them hope that they would be reunited with their child. The report also says that after all surviving children were reunited with their parents, an official said another bus with students was on its way to the reunification center, giving hope that more children were alive.
"In other cases, family members found out about a death on social media or from the Uvalde County district attorney announcing they were going to conduct autopsies," the report said. "Death notifications also were not provided by trained personnel, consistent with best practices. Initially, the death notification teams included school counselors, who were not trained to provide these notifications and were themselves victims."
Eventually, Texas DPS Rangers were assigned to provide the death notifications, even though many were not trained to do so.
"Although family members described the process as chaotic, painful, and infuriating, families also said that the actual notification by the Rangers was as compassionate as it was possible to be when sharing this type of news."
The DOJ makes several recommendations moving forward, including having teams on hand that are trained in trauma notifications. It says local officials engaging in trauma and death notifications should consult national resources and ensure best practices are followed when providing these notifications. Also, a trauma notification team should comprise two people: one law enforcement officer and one victim advocate or behavioral health provider.