Media outlets condemn ‘unconscionable’ Texas school shooting police response: ‘Dereliction of duty’

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David Webb: Police's 'failure to act' cost lives in Texas tragedy

Fox News contributor and Fox Nation host David Webb says the Uvalde community needs to have a 'reckoning' with its police department.

Numerous media outlets have condemned the police response to the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, casting law enforcement's conduct as "utterly negligent" and concerning after new details about the timeline of the massacre emerged.

The Washington Post editorial board was one of many to question the conduct of police officers at the scene, asserting that "families deserve answers" and urged the department to give them with "clarity and urgency."

"What lessons can be learned that might save lives in the future if — as sadly seems inevitable — there are more mass shootings?" the editorial board asked. "There needs to be a full public accounting. Just as the governor in Colorado once ordered a rigorous review of the events surrounding Columbine, so should Texas Gov. Greg Abbott."

MSNBC opinion columnist Hayes Brown declared the "police keep changing their story" regarding the shooting, an observation that serves as a "brutal reminder" that police cannot always be trusted as "reliable narrators."

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Crime scene tape surrounds Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Wednesday, May 25. (AP/Jae C. Hong)

"Even after the horror this week is eventually pieced together in full, it will be well worth remembering how far the final version of history will have come from where it started — and how law enforcement spent time trying to portray its inaction as heroism," Brown wrote. 

Stephen Gutowski, an experienced gun reporter and founder of "The Reload", wrote on Friday that the alleged conduct of the police was "unconscionable, "utterly negligent" and a "dereliction of duty."

"This was a catastrophic leadership failure. We need answers for how this was allowed to happen. Who was responsible for making these decisions? And, for God’s sake, why did they make them?" he wrote in part. 

Daily Caller reporter David Hookstead, in an extensive Twitter thread, said that the actions of police "cuts against everything first responders have been taught for two decades" and that parents "deserve answers."

Law enforcement work the scene after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, May 25. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

"The more we learn about the police's performance during the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the more troubling questions and issues arise. The worst is why police didn't immediately breach the room where the students were killed," he said at the top of the thread. 

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CNN anchor Jim Sciutto questioned why the police are not saying why it took so long to go into the classroom in which the shooter was holed up. 

After the shooting, which left 19 children and 2 teachers dead, there were multiple conflicting reports regarding whether officers confronted Ramos at the school's entrance. At first, law enforcement officials said Ramos "encountered" officers outside the school, though other reports suggested officers and suspects exchanged gunfire. Then, the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS) said Ramos shot at two Uvalde police officers as they arrived outside the school, behind Ramos. On Wednesday, TDPS South Texas Regional Director Victor Escalon said Ramos was "not confronted by anybody" and that no armed security guards were stationed at the school's entrance when the suspected gunman entered.

On Thursday, the Uvalde Police Department Chief Daniel Rodriguez released a statement stating officers responded to reports of a shooter "within minutes," alongside school district officers. Two responding officers sustained gunshot wounds. 

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Angeli Rose Gomez, a parent of two children in second and third grade at Robb Elementary, told The Wall Street Journal that Texas Rangers arrested her for intervening in an active situation after she and other parents urged police to enter the school building while the suspect was believed to be inside. Some parents were reportedly tased for attempting to push through the police perimeter. 

"The police were doing nothing," she told the outlet. "They were just standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or running anywhere."

Law enforcement personnel stand outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.  (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Many also became outraged after Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez defended the police response in a Thursday interview with CNN. Acknowledging the importance of swift police action, Olivarez admitted officers did not initially know where the shooter was in the school building, posing enhanced risk to officers. 

"At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could’ve been shot, they could’ve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school," Olivarez said.

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Videos posted on social media from the day of the shooting show frustrated parents and onlookers begging police to enter the building, as the shooter reportedly attacked within the school for up to an hour. Texas state police have launched an investigation into the police response. Part of the review will include analysis of radio communications and ballistics in order to create a timeline of events, and to determine who fired and when.

The Uvalde police and City Hall didn't respond to a request for comment. 

Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.