TX - Uvalde; Robb Elementary, 19 children and 3 adults killed, shooter dead, 24 MAY 2022 #2

[Seattle1]

Hubby was HS principal at a large school district in TX. Campus PD had keys to every room.

However this is a very large district and I believe the PD was created in the early 90s. (School police departmenrts were primarily created because of drugs on campus)

An article I posted a few posts back showed that 1/3 of Texas ISD police departments were created in 2018. If Uvalde's school PD was newly created, it could explain some of this.

From the UCISD website, this is the description for the PD but not seeing when the department was approved/funded, etc. I recall that Chief PA was hired to replace the former Chief.

UCISD Police Department​

The primary goal for the Uvalde CISD Police Department is to maintain a safe and secure environment for our future leaders to learn and our current leaders to educate while forming partnerships with students, teachers, parents, and the community while enforcing laws and reducing fears. We are committed to supporting the district's mission, to the highest level of professionalism, integrity and improving the quality of work by providing employees with effective leadership, supervision, and training.

Keep UCISD Safe / Homepage

www.ucisd.net

 

[Seattle1]

Uvalde school district now hiring police officers

UVALDE, Texas - Almost three weeks after the school tragedy, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department is hiring. Uvalde CISD Police began taking applications on June 6 for police officers, who will performs tasks related to ensuring the safety of UCISD students, staff...

cbsaustin.com

UVALDE, Texas - Almost three weeks after the school tragedy, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department is hiring.

Uvalde CISD Police began taking applications on June 6 for police officers, who will performs tasks related to ensuring the safety of UCISD students, staff, and visitors.

 

[Seattle1]

So much for Chief PA allegedly not knowing he was in charge...

Why was the head of a six-person force for Uvalde CISD in charge of the mass shooting response?

Why was the school police chief, who oversaw, by far, the smallest law-enforcement agency...

www.houstonchronicle.com

6/1/22

Uvalde police officers, Texas state troopers and members of the U.S. Border Patrol’s elite BORTAC squad all responded to the massacre at Robb Elementary a week ago. All were apparently brought to a standstill under the command of Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who officials say believed the shooter was no longer a risk to people in the school.

But why was the school police chief, who oversaw, by far, the smallest law-enforcement agency that responded, in charge of the situation response in the first place?

When it comes to who’s in charge, a department’s size doesn’t matter. In mass casualty events in which multiple agencies respond, the highest ranking officer from the agency that has jurisdiction over an emergency usually assumes control.

[..]

 

[Friday Fan]

From the UCISD website, this is the description for the PD but not seeing when the department was approved/funded, etc. I recall that Chief PA was hired to replace the former Chief.

UCISD Police Department​

The primary goal for the Uvalde CISD Police Department is to maintain a safe and secure environment for our future leaders to learn and our current leaders to educate while forming partnerships with students, teachers, parents, and the community while enforcing laws and reducing fears. We are committed to supporting the district's mission, to the highest level of professionalism, integrity and improving the quality of work by providing employees with effective leadership, supervision, and training.

Keep UCISD Safe / Homepage

www.ucisd.net

The other guy was fired for assaulting someone or something like that.....(It was some type of legal trouble...not serious)

 

[Erutan]

Uvalde cops 'didn't try to open classroom door for 77 minutes'

Surveillance footage from inside the school shows that police made no effort to open the door, and there is reason to believe it may even have been unlocked, a law enforcement source said.

www.dailymail.co.uk

• Uvalde cops never tried to enter classroom for 77 minutes, a new report says
• Previously, there were claims that they couldn't find a key to the door
• But surveillance video reportedly shows that they didn't even try the door

• Gunman entered without a key, suggesting the automatic lock had failed

Regarding the orange bolded : I'd wondered just what the security footage showed ?
If accurate ... this is depressing.

Re. the green bolded :Trusting your life and children's lives to an automatic locking system and not a manual one -- sounds like it could have potential drawbacks !

Of course this is the DM news site so take with a grain of salt.

Still this is very sad if true.

Esp. for the families of the deceased.
My .02.

 

[x_files]

Uvalde cops 'didn't try to open classroom door for 77 minutes'

Surveillance footage from inside the school shows that police made no effort to open the door, and there is reason to believe it may even have been unlocked, a law enforcement source said.

www.dailymail.co.uk

• Uvalde cops never tried to enter classroom for 77 minutes, a new report says
• Previously, there were claims that they couldn't find a key to the door
• But surveillance video reportedly shows that they didn't even try the door
• Gunman entered without a key, suggesting the automatic lock had failed

Regarding the orange bolded : I'd wondered just what the security footage showed ?
If accurate ... this is depressing.

Re. the green bolded :Trusting your life and children's lives to an automatic locking system and not a manual one -- sounds like it could have potential drawbacks !

Of course this is the DM news site so take with a grain of salt.

Still this is very sad if true.

Esp. for the families of the deceased.
My .02.

The story keeps evolving!

 

[Dotta]

The story keeps evolving!

And the end might turn out to be completely opposite to the beginning.

 

[IceIce9]

The story keeps evolving!

There has been so much that has changed about this story. I don’t know who or what to believe, but the Daily Mail is not at the top of my list of trusted sources. JMO

 

[Friday Fan]

There has been so much that has changed about this story. I don’t know who or what to believe, but the Daily Mail is not at the top of my list of trusted sources. JMO

The Daily Mail got their information from the San Antonio Express-News

Police never tried to open class door - San Antonio Express, 6/19/2022

digital.olivesoftware.com

 

[Doghairrules]

There has been so much that has changed about this story. I don’t know who or what to believe, but the Daily Mail is not at the top of my list of trusted sources. JMO

Right? It seems that they'd rather lie even when telling the truth would be easier. IMO

I read this in People last night, related to where kids were when the shooting started:

'We're in a Nightmare': Stories of Anguish and Love from Uvalde

Twenty-one people, including 19 children and two teachers, were killed in last week's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas

people.com

Adalynn Garza, 9, was on the swings with her friend during recess when the shooting began. A PE coach told everyone to run inside to hide. When she finally emerged more than an hour later, her entire world had been shattered.

And then this quote from one of the dads who was waiting all that time for a child who was already dead:

Father of Uvalde School Shooting Victim Says Daughter Was 'Excited' About Going to Junior High

Vincente Salazar III's daughter Layla Salazar was killed when a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday

people.com

I got another text saying pick up your child at the Civic Center. So I just left from there and went downtown to the Civic Center, and we waited there. And they told us that no children had been harmed. That's what they told us.
They who?
Vincente Salazar III: The faculty or whoever was there from the school, the superintendent. They told us that no children have been harmed. So we, you know, we're like okay, well who is being harmed because there's ambulance after ambulance after ambulance. They're not going to do that for one shooter if they knew he's dead. And they just did lie to us the whole day. The whole day. We were there from 1 o'clock in the afternoon to 11 o'clock at night. And we didn't get an answer from nobody about nothing. It wasn't until about 9 o'clock at night that they pulled everybody into the room and told us if you're still here, and you didn't get your child that, you know, there's this strong possibility that your child didn't make it.

 

[IceIce9]

Right? It seems that they'd rather lie even when telling the truth would be easier. IMO

I read this in People last night, related to where kids were when the shooting started:

'We're in a Nightmare': Stories of Anguish and Love from Uvalde

Twenty-one people, including 19 children and two teachers, were killed in last week's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas

people.com

Adalynn Garza, 9, was on the swings with her friend during recess when the shooting began. A PE coach told everyone to run inside to hide. When she finally emerged more than an hour later, her entire world had been shattered.

And then this quote from one of the dads who was waiting all that time for a child who was already dead:

Father of Uvalde School Shooting Victim Says Daughter Was 'Excited' About Going to Junior High

Vincente Salazar III's daughter Layla Salazar was killed when a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday

people.com

I got another text saying pick up your child at the Civic Center. So I just left from there and went downtown to the Civic Center, and we waited there. And they told us that no children had been harmed. That's what they told us.
They who?
Vincente Salazar III: The faculty or whoever was there from the school, the superintendent. They told us that no children have been harmed. So we, you know, we're like okay, well who is being harmed because there's ambulance after ambulance after ambulance. They're not going to do that for one shooter if they knew he's dead. And they just did lie to us the whole day. The whole day. We were there from 1 o'clock in the afternoon to 11 o'clock at night. And we didn't get an answer from nobody about nothing. It wasn't until about 9 o'clock at night that they pulled everybody into the room and told us if you're still here, and you didn't get your child that, you know, there's this strong possibility that your child didn't make it.

The superintendent told them no children had been harmed? I hadn’t read that before.

 

[OldAce]

The Texas Department of Public Safety has asked the state's AG to prevent the release of police body camera footage from the mass shooting in Uvalde because it could be used by other shooters to determine "weaknesses" in police response to crimes.

Texas Police Want Uvalde Bodycam Footage Suppressed Because It Could Expose Law Enforcement ‘Weakness’

The Texas Department of Public Safety asked the state's Attorney General to prevent the public release of body camera footage in response to a public records request from Motherboard.

www.vice.com

Do not need film to grasp the "weakness's" in the police response to this crime. 19 armed men with one interior wall between them and the shooter?
From start-Him shooting thru the door, to finish-BP officers making the entry, there would have been enough time for one of them to have gone to his home and got his own personal crowbar and opened the door.


His head took 5 staples to close the scalp wound

 

[Wise Old Owl]

The superintendent told them no children had been harmed? I hadn’t read that before.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW and I mean HOW does that man sleep at night now?

He KNEW - you bet he KNEW but yet he tells those waiting parents - parents who have watched and seen all the other parents reunited with their children - yet their children haven't shown up - and and and he tells them - no children had been harmed?

I don't know if its a lack of compassion, or morals, or values............it is sure a lack of something. Humanity.

I have to wonder what he tells himself to make it ok -what he did. How does he reconcile what he did to be able to live with himself or is he just that "cold hearted" or "arrogant" or - I don't even know what word I'm looking for here to explain a person that would do something like this and be "ok" with it - explain it away with "well, I did what I had to do".

What are we coming to?

(I'm just going to hang my head and go over in the corner and sit quietly for awhile).

 

[Friday Fan]

The Texas Department of Public Safety has asked the state's AG to prevent the release of police body camera footage from the mass shooting in Uvalde because it could be used by other shooters to determine "weaknesses" in police response to crimes.

Texas Police Want Uvalde Bodycam Footage Suppressed Because It Could Expose Law Enforcement ‘Weakness’

The Texas Department of Public Safety asked the state's Attorney General to prevent the public release of body camera footage in response to a public records request from Motherboard.

www.vice.com

It may expose:
Cop not shooting SR outside the school because children may have not been outside
PA calling SR's phone and trying numerous numbers
PA calling Uvalde PD dispatch
Location of PA's radio..But did PA even wear body cam?
Unlocked doors
Locked doors
Someone looking for keys

And they will determine "weaknesses" how?

 

[Friday Fan]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW and I mean HOW does that man sleep at night now?

He KNEW - you bet he KNEW but yet he tells those waiting parents - parents who have watched and seen all the other parents reunited with their children - yet their children haven't shown up - and and and he tells them - no children had been harmed?

I don't know if its a lack of compassion, or morals, or values............it is sure a lack of something. Humanity.

I have to wonder what he tells himself to make it ok -what he did. How does he reconcile what he did to be able to live with himself or is he just that "cold hearted" or "arrogant" or - I don't even know what word I'm looking for here to explain a person that would do something like this and be "ok" with it - explain it away with "well, I did what I had to do".

What are we coming to?

(I'm just going to hang my head and go over in the corner and sit quietly for awhile).

I "watched" it on twitter and live updates (which were revised, so don't have those links)

They had tweeted at 1:06 PM that the "Suspect was in custody"

I didn't know students were likely shot until 1:44 PM.

At 12:06 PM "Students and staff are safe in the buildings"




There was no indication that children had died.
12:17 PM It started with a shooter near an elementary school in Uvalde. Schools were on lockdown



12:58 PM Shooting is not on school grounds
Suspect had barricaded himself in the building
Everyone was evacuated and safe
1:06 PM UPD said the shooter is in custody.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more information is received. Please check back for updates.

Some students were being treated at the Uvalde ER (Who knows maybe they got by desks or something??)

1:44 PM University Health tweets. (Then I knew there was an actual shooting on campus, because they would have needed to be airlifted 85 miles away)

03:03 PM 2 students have died via CBS news
About 3:44 PM: Press conference on at the gym: 14 students have died

Sorry about the messy post!!

​

 

[Wise Old Owl]

Thank you for that Friday Fan - but not a single one of those are credited to Mr. Harrell (superintendent) as a quote. After all, he is THE BOSS, he is the superintendent - he is even Arredondo's boss.

Come to think of it - we have heard little to nothing (more like nothing) from this guy at all. Yet he is the top dog.

Again, just another thing that is wrong with our education system in this country. Accountability should be from the top down - but it never is. The big guys always find ways to "trickle down" the responsibility to their "underlings". And they walk away unscathed. And, even though we have heard nothing from him - he was sure front and center to meet with the President when he visited. He is the highest paid employee in the school district - and from what I found - he is probably the highest paid person in the entire county. He makes almost double what the mayor does. This is all public information as he is a public employee. He is not elected but "hired" by elected officials (school board members), yet his salary and raises are always discussed and voted upon in "closed door sessions".

Here is the public record:

"After conferring in closed session for two hours on Monday evening, the governing board of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District approved a two-year contract extension and $165,000 salary for superintendent Hal Harrell."
“The superintendent and his team accomplished much for the district this year, including.............continuing to enhance security in our schools,.......... said board president Javier Flores in an email following the board’s unanimous vote."

UCISD trustees OK raise, contract extension for Harrell - Uvalde Leader News

Melissa Federspill Staff writer After conferring in closed session for two hours on Monday evening, the governing board of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District approved a two-year contract extension and $165,000 salary for superintendent Hal Harrell. This is Harrell’s first appraisal...

www.uvaldeleadernews.com

But I guess its ok for him to lie to parents...............all in the name of public safety..............


**NOTE** - I live in a district that is almost exactly the same size as Uvalde - and the super here makes about $55,000. LESS than this guy.


JMHO

 

[ChatteringBirds]

How utterly cruel to assure the parents no children were harmed, so he/they wouldn't have to deal with emotions or show real empathy. They should have told the parents they didn't know yet. Could they have brought in psychologists to be with the parents? Did they even try?

 

[ChatteringBirds]

DBM

 

[ChatteringBirds]

DBM

 

[ChatteringBirds]

DBM