UVALDE, Texas – A grand jury has been convened by District Attorney Christina Mitchell to investigate the actions of the police in the response to a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in 2022, in which 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were killed, according to Texas media reports. The shooting resulted in the death of the 18-year-old shooter after police waited more than an hour before entering the classrooms where the shooting took place.
The investigation comes after a U.S. Justice Department review labeled the police response as a critical failure and stated that lives could have been saved if law enforcement had followed established protocols for dealing with an active shooter situation. Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized this point during a press conference in Uvalde, mentioning that immediate action from the police could have prevented further casualties.
Despite being one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, the incident has had little impact on gun regulation, with the courts and legislatures generally upholding the individual right to carry arms. As a result, District Attorney Mitchell’s decision to convene the grand jury was not directly in response to the Justice Department’s report, as she had already planned to do so before the review was made public.
The grand jury, whose members were selected on Friday, will spend at least six months scrutinizing the events of May 24, 2022, with a focus on determining whether the police could be held criminally responsible for their actions. Additionally, any potential assistance provided to the shooter in obtaining weapons or ammunition is also subject to investigation.
The outcome of the grand jury’s proceedings will be of great interest as it seeks to provide answers and potentially hold accountable those responsible for the tragic events at Robb Elementary School. The community’s hopes for closure and justice rest on the thorough examination of the facts by the grand jury as they strive to bring some sense of resolution to this devastating incident.