UVALDE, Texas — Sunday’s meeting at the Uvalde’s Civic Center with committee members left many families with unanswered questions.
The meeting that nearly lasted two hours – all narrowed down to “multiple systemic failures."
The father of 10 year-old Uziyah Garcia, Sergio Garcia showed up in hopes of some kind of answers.
“If there’s only one thing that I can tell you is, there were multiple systemic failures,” State of Texas Representative Dustin Burrows said.
The report indicates that Robb Elementary did not properly prepare for the risk of an armed intruder.
In which allowed the gunman to enter the building and fired approximately 142 rounds – 100 of those before officers made it inside- leaving 19 students and two teachers dead.
Eva Guzman former jurist of the Texas Supreme Court agreed with Burrows.
Guzman says that there were multiple systemic failures including not locking doors.
The report states that there were three exterior doors that were left unlocked, which gave the intruder direct access to enter the school with no interference.
“Had school personnel locked the doors as the school’s policy required, that could have slowed his progress for a few precious minutes—long enough to receive alerts, hide children, and lock doors; and long enough to give police more opportunity to engage and stop the attacker,” reads the report.
Families were extremely saddened with what the committee had to say and are demanding for someone to be held accountable.
“Over 300 officers at the scene and nobody, nobody thought to do what was necessary,” Garcia said.
He added that responders that day – failed to do their job.
The 77 page report – states that law enforcement responders failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their safety.
“They’re not telling us what’s going to happen to the chief, they’re not telling us what’s going to happen to the officer, all the 300 and plus officers that were there should be stripped of their duties and fired,” he said.
Representative Burrows said they spent 44 days looking at the facts .
He stated that every agency will have to conduct their own internal review.
“If somebody knew there were victims in there being killed or dying and did not do more, I believe those agencies will have to find accountability for those officers, Burrows said.
Uvalde’s mayor Don Laughlin says the city has placed its acting chief of police on administrative leave – agreeing with the committee’s review that there was a failure of command all around.
“The city of Uvalde will be conducting an internal investigation regarding our police departments actions, policies and procedures,”said Laughlin.
Unfortunately, the accountability is not coming soon enough for the parents of the victims.
“Why wasn’t my son served and protected like they promised they were going to do,” Garcia said.
The family members want justice – and the investigations are only raising more questions than answers.
Digital Content Producer Naidy Escobar contributed to this story.
