AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A legal investigation in Texas over the hesitant police response to the Robb Elementary School taking pictures remains to be ongoing as Wednesday marks one 12 months since a gunman killed 19 kids and two lecturers inside a fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde.
The persevering with probe underlines the lasting fallout over Texas’ deadliest college taking pictures and the way the times after the assault had been marred by authorities giving inaccurate and conflicting accounts about efforts made to cease a teenage gunman armed with an AR-style rifle.
The investigation has run parallel to a brand new wave of public anger within the U.S. over gun violence, renewed requires stricter firearm laws and authorized challenges over authorities in Uvalde persevering with to withhold public data associated to the taking pictures and the police response.
Here’s a have a look at what has occurred within the 12 months since certainly one of America’s deadliest mass shootings:
POLICE SCRUTINY
A damning report by Texas lawmakers put almost 400 officers on the scene from an array of federal, state and native companies. The findings laid out how closely armed officers waited greater than an hour to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman. It additionally accused police of failing “to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”
All of the scholars killed had been between the ages of 9 and 11 years outdated.
At least 5 officers who had been put beneath investigation after the taking pictures had been both fired or resigned, though a full accounting is unclear. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Col. Steve McCraw, put a lot of the blame after the assault on Uvalde’s college police chief, who was later fired by trustees.
McCraw had greater than 90 of his personal officers on the college — greater than another company — and has rebuffed calls by some Uvalde households and lawmakers to additionally resign.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell mentioned final week that Texas Rangers are nonetheless investigating the police response and that her workplace will in the end current the findings to a grand jury. She mentioned she didn’t have a timeline for when the investigation can be completed.
On Monday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned he was annoyed by the tempo of the investigations a 12 months later.
“They don’t have answers to simple questions they should have,” McLaughlin mentioned of the households.
CALLS FOR GUN CONTROL INTENSIFY
President Joe Biden signed the nation’s most sweeping gun violence invoice in a long time a month after the taking pictures. It included more durable background checks for the youngest gun consumers and added extra funding for psychological well being applications and support to varsities.
It didn’t go so far as restrictions sought by some Uvalde households who’ve known as on lawmakers to lift the acquisition age for AR-style rifles. In the GOP-controlled Texas Capitol, Republicans this 12 months rejected nearly all proposals to tighten gun legal guidelines over the protests of the households and Democrats.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has additionally waved off requires more durable gun legal guidelines, simply as he did after mass shootings at a Sutherland Springs church in 2017 and an El Paso Walmart in 2018. The situation has not turned Texas voters away from Abbott, who simply gained a 3rd time period months after the Uvalde taking pictures.
UVALDE GRIEVES
The Uvalde college district completely closed the Robb Elementary campus and plans for a brand new college are within the works. Schools in Uvalde will likely be closed Wednesday.
About a dozen college students within the classroom the place the taking pictures unfolded survived the assault. Some returned to class in individual final fall. Others attended college nearly, together with a lady who spent greater than two months within the hospital after being shot a number of occasions.
Veronica Mata, a kindergarten trainer in Uvalde, additionally returned to class this 12 months after her 10-daughter Tess was amongst these killed within the assault.
Some Uvalde households have filed lawsuits in opposition to the gun maker and regulation enforcement.
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