UVALDE, Texas — Some Texas police agencies are not happy with the Robb Elementary shooting report released last week by a Texas House of Representatives Investigative Committee.
They said their officers had nothing to do with the active shooter response because the suspect was already dead by the time they arrived. Yet the highly-critical report lumps them with other agencies.
The Texas House investigators criticized law enforcement for “shortcomings” and “missed opportunities” at Robb Elementary school, finding “systemic failures” and “egregiously poor decision making” among law enforcement.
Chief Homer Delgado of the Dilley Police Department, a small 13-officer force located about 60 miles from Uvalde, said the report paints law enforcement with a broad brush.
“When we saw the report come out, we were as you can imagine, we were disappointed because it made it look like Dilley had officers who had responded to the actual shooting,” Chief Homer Delgado said.
Chief Delgado said he arrived in Uvalde about 1:15 p.m. on May 24, nearly a half hour after the shooter was killed. He said three other Dilley officers arrived after that and were assigned to crowd control duties at the civic center in town.
“DPS, FBI had already taken control of the scene, and we were actually not allowed anywhere near the area of the school property,” Delgado said.
Yet the interim investigative report lists Dilley among the 376 law enforcement officers who “responded to the tragedy” at Robb Elementary. It also lists 16 officers from San Antonio PD’s SWAT team.
An SAPD spokesperson said the first team of SWAT officers arrived by helicopter at 1:15 p.m., with more officers arriving by vehicle at approximately 1:29 p.m.
“Upon arrival, SAPD was notified that the attacker had been killed,” the SAPD Public Information Office said.
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Two Val Verde County Sheriff deputies, listed as “responders” to Robb Elementary, also arrived “after the shooter had been neutralized.”
“There were no Val Verde County Sheriff deputies that participated in the active response to the Robb Elementary School shooting,” said Sheriff Joe Martinez.
“Furthermore, the VVSO deputies, upon arrival, were assigned to assist with crowd control at the local hospital,” he said.
For Chief Delgado, accountability should only come with proper context.
I would like to set the story straight,” he said. “No Dilley officer arrived at the scene in time to have any influence on whatever the outcome may have been.”
KHOU 11 Investigates requested comment from the Texas House Investigative Committee.
Chairman Dustin Burrows, who was reached by phone, referred questions to his chief of staff, who did not return several texts, voicemails and email messages.