Courtesy of the VOA
Two days before the anniversary of the tragedy, families of the victims of the school shooting announced a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde, Texas. This settlement includes paying $2 million to be distributed amongst 17 of the families involved in the suit. It also comes with a promise by the city to address necessary changes in its police department, such as enhanced training, and the establishment of May 24 as a day of remembrance.
May 24, 2024, marks the two-year anniversary of the shooting at Robb Elementary School that took the lives of 19 children and 2 teachers. The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school through the parking lot with an assault rifle and tactical vest, which held extra ammunition. Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw explains the gunman shot more than 100 rounds in the span of 4 minutes. He then barricaded himself in a classroom, where all the casualties of the event took place.
“We all know who took our children’s lives, but there was an obvious systematic failure out there on May 24,” said Javier Cazares, father of 9-year-old victim Jackie Cazares. While law enforcement rushed to the scene, they stalled for 77 minutes before finally entering the classroom and neutralizing the gunman. Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lieutenant Chris Olivarez explains that the first group of officers who rushed to the scene were put at a disadvantage because the gunman had barricaded himself in the classroom. The initial focus of law enforcement present at the scene was to “preserve any further loss of life,” said Olivarez, as they did not have the manpower to proceed as an active shooter situation. The officers focused on trying to rescue and evacuate. It was not until more than an hour later that a specialized tactical team breached the classroom and shot the gunman.
“From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision,” stated McCraw. The Texas House of Representatives Investigative Committee released a 77-page report of the event, which outlines the chaos and lack of leadership at the scene. “The scene was chaotic, without any person obviously in charge or directing the law enforcement response,” reads the report. It highlights many deficiencies that occurred the day of the shooting, many of which were also expressed in the statement by Josh Koskoff, the lawyer representing many of the families in the suit. The families’ lawyers argued that the number of casualties was likely increased by the delayed response of the officers.
The $2 million settlement was reached, said Koskoff, from the city’s insurance coverage, fearing that anything more would have put in jeopardy the finances of the city, “something that none of the families were interested in as they look for the community to heal.” This settlement represents an effort by the city of Uvalde to rebuild the trust that was lost in the system. Koskoff explains that they could have pursued further efforts to sue the city, but that the families wanted to move forward “together as a community to bring healing and restoration to all those affected.”
The settlement also brings a promise by the Uvalde Police Department to enhance training and create new standards such as “fitness for duty”, and policies that will prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. They also pledged to support families through mental health services, a community center, and the establishment of a permanent memorial and a day of remembrance.
The families are said to continue legal action against the school district, 92 DPS officers, and the federal government for their role in the inaction and the delay in neutralizing the gunman on the day of the shooting.
A total of 376 law enforcement officers were at the scene of the shooting, yet it took 77 minutes for anything to happen. The report by the Texas House Committee concluded that it is very plausible that some of the victims could have survived had they not had to wait over an hour to be rescued. Koskoff says in Wednesday’s statement, “Sure, that was a heroic act, it was a heroic act 77 minutes late.”
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, there were discrepancies with Texas official’s story of what happened on May 24. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott praised law enforcement efforts to respond to the scene, but reports came to light that highlighted many things that went wrong. Abbot later retracted this statement and claimed that he had been “misled” and was merely reciting what he had been told in earlier briefings. After thorough investigations of the event, it was concluded that there had indeed been failures in the way the situation was handled.
The Texas House Committee report reads, “There was an overall lackadaisical approach by law enforcement at the scene. For many, that was because they were given and relied upon inaccurate information. For others, they had enough information to know better.”
The tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was one of the biggest school shootings in the country. Its impact lingers in the lives of the community—both the families’ loss of loved ones, and the lack of trust caused by the failure to act by local and federal law enforcement officials. Two years later, the families and the community seek to rebuild and fight for change so that nothing like it happens again. This incident underscores many deficits in the system, and although the settlement is a step in the right direction, the families remain headstrong in their journey for justice and accountability.
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