One year after Uvalde shooting, criminal investigation of police response continues

A criminal investigation into the sluggish police reaction to the Robb Elementary School massacre is still underway in Texas, as the one-year anniversary of a shooter killing 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde approaches on Wednesday.

The ongoing investigation highlights the long-term ramifications of Texas’ bloodiest school shooting, as well as how the days after the incident were tainted by officials providing incorrect and contradictory versions of efforts to apprehend a young gunman equipped with an AR-style weapon.

The probe has coincided with a fresh surge of public outrage in the United States over gun violence, revived calls for stronger weapon controls, and legal challenges over Uvalde authorities’ refusal to provide public data pertaining to the killing and the police reaction.

Here’s a look at what has happened in the year since one of America’s deadliest mass shootings:

Police scrutiny

A damning report by Texas lawmakers put nearly 400 officers on the scene from an array of federal, state and local agencies. The findings laid out how heavily armed officers waited more than an hour to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman. It also accused police of failing “to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”

The students slain were all between the ages of 9 and 11.

At least five cops who were placed under investigation following the incident were either dismissed or resigned, while a complete accounting is unknown. Col. Steve McCraw, the commissioner of the Texas Department of Public Safety, blamed the attack in large part on Uvalde’s school police chief, who was eventually removed by trustees.

McCraw had more than 90 of his own police at the school, more than any other agency, and has resisted calls to quit from several Uvalde families and politicians.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell said last week that Texas Rangers are still investigating the police response and that her office will ultimately present the findings to a grand jury. She said she did not have a timeline for when the investigation would be finished.

Calls for gun control intensify

President Joe Biden signed the nation’s most sweeping gun violence bill in decades a month after the shooting. It included tougher background checks for the youngest gun buyers and added more funding for mental health programs and aid to schools.

It did not go as far as restrictions sought by some Uvalde families who have called on lawmakers to raise the purchase age for AR-style rifles. In the GOP-controlled Texas Capitol, Republicans this year rejected virtually all proposals to tighten gun laws over the protests of the families and Democrats.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has also waved off calls for tougher gun laws, just as he did after mass shootings at a Sutherland Springs church in 2017 and an El Paso Walmart in 2018. The issue has not turned Texas voters away from Abbott, who easily won a third term months after the Uvalde shooting.

Uvalde grieves

The Uvalde school district permanently closed the Robb Elementary campus and plans for a new school are in the works. Schools in Uvalde will be closed on Wednesday.

About a dozen students in the classroom where the shooting unfolded survived the attack. Some returned to class in person last fall. Others attended school virtually, including a girl who spent more than two months in the hospital after being shot multiple times.

Veronica Mata, a kindergarten teacher in Uvalde, also returned to class this year after her 10-daughter Tess was among those killed in the attack.

Some Uvalde families have filed lawsuits against the gun maker and law enforcement.

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