The Authorities in Uvalde Are Turning on One Another

The law-enforcement sideshow related to the school shooting in Texas continues to unfurl a week after the attack in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two adults.

On Tuesday, ABC News reported that the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District police force are no longer cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety investigation into the shooting. The decision reportedly came soon after DPS director Colonel Steven McCraw stated at a news conference on Friday that the local police’s decision to delay entering the classroom the shooter had locked himself into was “the wrong decision” and did not follow protocol.

McCraw explained that Pete Arredondo, the police chief of Uvalde schools, who was the commander on the scene, improperly identified the situation as one involving a barricaded suspect, not an active shooter. Due in part to this decision, more than a dozen officers inside Robb Elementary School did not enter the fourth-grade classroom for over an hour after the first officers arrived. During the standoff, at least one student called 911 from inside the classroom, asking to “please send the police now.”

Although McCraw’s press conference seemed to set the record straight after days of contradictory or false statements from officials, some details of the attack are still in flux. Officials initially reported that the gunman had entered the school through an unlocked door, then that the door had been propped open by a teacher to call 911. But on Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety stated that the teacher, who has not been named, did close the door behind her, though it did not lock. “We did verify she closed the door,” said a DPS official. “We know that much, and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock.”

As the authorities in Texas squabble, the Department of Justice is investigating their response upon request from Uvalde’s mayor.