A report sheds light on the deadliest school shooting in Texas’s history

“It could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law-enforcement officials did what they do.” So said Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, at a press conference in May, the day after 19 children and two teachers were fatally shot at an elementary school in Uvalde by Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old. Mr Abbott must feel sheepish. On July 17th a committee of the Texas House of Representatives released a report on its investigation into the shooting. The image that emerges from the 77 pages is of a police force in chaos. The tragedy at Robb Elementary School will not only be remembered because it was the deadliest shooting ever at a school in Texas, but also because the response was botched.

The inquiry revealed that it took 73 minutes from when the first officers arrived at the school to when they entered the classroom and confronted the shooter there. The delay deprived victims of medical care that might have saved lives, the report notes. In all, 376 law-enforcement officials were deployed to Robb Elementary. None took command. And they disregarded training on how to neutralise an active shooter in a school setting, which has been established practice since the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999.