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Uvalde school shooting report reveals border officers couldn’t access school map or keys
As U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel arrived on the scene of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, none were able to find a map or keys needed to gain access to critical areas of the building, according to a federal report released Thursday.
While the 18-year-old gunman opened fire while barricaded inside a classroom of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, only one of the 188 CBP law enforcement officers who responded had a halligan tool — a device capable of forcibly opening the locked door.
Amid the chaos, some victims with gunshot wounds were placed on a school bus without first receiving medical attention, the report said. The victims survived, but the report faulted officials for not providing them immediate medical treatment.
The revelations about the rampage, which resulted in the killing of 19 students and two teachers, were made public in a 203-page report that contained the findings of a two-year-long internal investigation by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the agency’s oversight branch.
CBP said its review was intended to evaluate whether its personnel followed the law in its response and to determine how the agency’s response could be improved if officers are asked to respond to similar incidents in the future.
In the absence of a strong incident commander, officers from the federal agency struggled to identify a leader on scene.
“No law enforcement official ever clearly established command at the school during the incident, leading to delays, inaction, and potentially further loss of life,” the report read. Without a command-and-control framework, investigators found responding personnel were tasked on an “ad-hoc basis” through requests from local law enforcement or their own initiative.
CBP found that officers who responded to the scene did not violate internal policy or the law, the agency said in a statement Thursday. Members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit and the Border Patrol Search, Trauma and Rescue Unit were among the officers who located and killed the shooter in the classroom.
The agency said it has taken several actions in response to the probe. They include updating agency policies, expanding the pool of agency employees who receive active shooter response training and evaluating the need for additional tools like equipment to breach locked doors. Officials said they have also issued guidance to better collaborate with state and local law enforcement when responding to shootings and other similar incidents.
“As our report indicates, we are committed to, and working with our federal, state, and local partners to ensure that our brave officers and agents have effective training, policy guidance, equipment, and legal authority to respond to critical incidents,” acting CBP head Troy Miller said in a statement Thursday.
The Uvalde shooting created “immense logistical and tactical challenges that severely tested the resources and capabilities of responding officers and agencies,” the review said. It also determined that the agency’s existing training on active shooter response procedures “did not adequately prepare responding personnel to deal with this situation.”
The report found efforts to recover evidence by multiple investigative agencies — including the FBI and Texas Rangers — in the immediate hours following the shooting led to “fragmented crime scene processing.” Text messages used by CBP personnel during the incident were not obtained by the agency until months following the incident. “Coordination with other investigative entities could prevent this oversight in the future,” investigators added.
According to CBP, dozens of special agents worked on the investigation, reviewing thousands of hours of video and conducting over 200 interviews.
CBP’s report is the latest review to denounce authorities’ response to the Uvalde shooting. In January, the Justice Department released the findings on its own investigation, saying the response to the shooting highlighted “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy, and training.”
Pete Arredondo, the former Uvalde schools police chief who was the de facto on scene commander during the shooting, was indicted on 10 counts of child endangerment and abandonment earlier this year stemming from his role that day. He has pleaded not guilty.
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Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.