A Texas House special committee is set to release a preliminary report Sunday into the Uvalde school shooting, one of the first formal attempts to provide details to grieving families and community members 53 days after the massacre occurred.
The committee has held closed-door meetings over the past month investigating the shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Outrage has skyrocketed over the response of law enforcers who converged on the school but waited more than an hour before breaching a fourth-grade classroom – even as terrified students dialed 911 for help.
Earlier this week, the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, and TV station KVUE exclusively obtained and released hallway surveillance video of the shooter and responding law enforcement officers from the shooting.
Families of the victims are expected to receive the committee’s report and have a chance to view the hallway video Sunday afternoon, according to committee chairman Rep. Dustin Burrows. The report will be released to the public soon after.
Here’s what we know.
What is expected to be in the report?
The investigative committee has been attempting to answer many questions about what happened during the May 24 shooting, including why law enforcement officers waited more than an hour to enter the classroom where the gunman was.
The committee’s preliminary report is expected to include a chronological sequence of events, a timeline of the shooting and details on the shooter, CNN reported.
While the full investigation hasn’t been completed, the preliminary report will provide initial details gathered from testimony to families and community members, many of whom have voiced frustration over conflicting law enforcement descriptions and details of the events surrounding the shooting.
Among the more than 40 people who testified before the committee: Administrators with the Texas Department of Public Safety, officers from the Uvalde police department, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and Uvalde Sheriff Ruben Nolasco are among those who testified.
How did the shooting narrative change?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially praised law enforcement officers for their actions during the shooting and praised their “amazing courage by running toward gunfire.” He later walked back his statement after it was revealed that officers waited more than an hour after the shooter entered the school to storm the classroom.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw called the police response an “abject failure” that put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children at a Texas Senate hearing in June. McCraw blamed the school district’s police chief Pete Arredondo, the incident commander, for stopping officers from quickly confronting the gunman.
A different report obtained by the Statesman earlier this month – written by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training and sought by the Texas Department of Public Safety – also found a Uvalde police officer aimed his rifle at the gunman before he entered the school but waited for a supervisor’s permission to open fire.
What did the hallway video show?
The exclusive video obtained by The Statesman and TV station KVUE earlier this week showed the delayed law enforcement response.
In the video, officers walk back and forth in the hallway without entering or attempting to enter the classroom where the shooter was located. Even after hearing at least four shots from the classrooms 45 minutes after police arrived, officers did not move to enter the room. They finally rushed into the classroom and killed the gunman an hour and 14 minutes after police arrived on the scene.
Law enforcement experts who reviewed the video for the Statesman called police action “disastrous” and “inexcusable.”
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The Texas House committee had pushed for the 77-minute videotape to be released to the public and the Department of Public Safety wanted to release the video as well, saying it would promote transparency without interfering with ongoing investigations.
But Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee objected to releasing the video and instructed the DPS to keep it confidential as investigations continued.
The video that the House committee will make available to families and the public Sunday will not include footage of the gunman walking into the school and the view from the hallway of the gunman initially firing his way into the classrooms. The video the Statesman obtained includes that footage.
Contributing: Tony Plohetski, Austin American-Statesman; Associated Press
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism