'Systemic failures' in response to Uvalde shooting

A Texas legislators' probe of the Uvalde school shooting that left 21 dead blamed "systemic failures" and poor leadership for contributing to the death toll, a report released on Sunday found.

The Texas House of Representatives committee investigation marked the most exhaustive attempt so far to determine why it took more than an hour for police and other officers to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School on May 24.

The bottom line, the report found, is that "law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety."

The 77-page report said 376 law enforcement officers rushed to the school in a chaotic scene marked by a lack of clear leadership and sufficient urgency.

"Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any 'villains' in the course of its investigation," the report stated. "Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making."

"The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon."

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that the city had placed Lieutenant Mariano Pargas, who was the acting city policy chief on the day of the shooting, on administrative leave.

Pargas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

State police officials have sharply criticized the leadership of Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the school district's six-man police force, who state police have said was in control of the scene.

But the report noted that hundreds of officers from agencies that were better trained and better equipped than the school police force badly failed, too.

"Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach(Arredondo) or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance," the report stated.

The mayor McLaughlin also on Sunday released body camera footage from some of the city police officers who responded to the shooting, which showed the confusion of the scene.

The body cam footage of one officer who was among the first to arrive inside the school, just a few minutes after the gunman had fired over 100 rounds inside the classrooms, showed the chaos.

The officer approached the door of the classroom and was grazed with one of the gunman's shots. He asked fellow officers in the hallway if he was bleeding, then momentarily retreated outside the school.

"He's in the class!," the officer told colleagues outside. "We gotta get in there! We gotta get in there, he just keeps shooting!"