Nine-member team to investigate police response in Uvalde, Justice Department says

Announcement comes amid two congressional hearings on gun violence and extremism

The Justice Department has announced the team that will officially review the actions of the Uvalde Police Department during the massacre that left nearly two dozen people dead at an elementary school.

Speculation about the officers’ actions that day has swirled for weeks, with official explanations from local authorities shifting and contradicting each other on several occaisions. Given that the siege finally ended when a strike team of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Border Patrol agency arrived, many are questioning why Uvalde police did not act sooner themselves to stop the carnage.

Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed that Uvalde’s mayor had requested a critical incident review during remarks delivered on Wednesday.

“There is nothing that we can do that can undo the pain” suffered by victims’ families in Uvalde, Mr Garland said during his remarks on Wednesday.

But the Justice Department can help with “assessing what happened” that led to the shooter being inside the school for nearly an hour, and provide guidance for law enforcement going forward, Mr Garland said.

The Justice Department has the power to conduct independent reviews of situations where one or more deaths can potentially be blamed on the actions or inactions of local law enforcement agencies, and can recommend charges be filed to state authorities if evidence of wrongdoing is found. The agency has also in the past brought federal charges in extremely rare cases against law enforcement agencies or individuals for violations of civil rights or other federal crimes.

The agency’s team set to investigate the actions of police in Uvalde will include former police chiefs including one who served at Virginia Tech, site of a 2007 massacre, as well as a former FBI official, according to The Associated Press.

The review will not only focus on the command structure and actions of the Uvalde Police Department on the day of the deadly shooting but also the department’s training and procedures as a whole. It is being led by the DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The agency’s final report will be made public. The review was first requested by Uvalde’s mayor last month; in the days and weeks since the shooting occurred, Mayor Don McLaughlin has contended in public remarks that he has received little to no updates from his town’s police on their own investigation of the scene. The department is now facing scathing criticism from locals, some of whom have demanded the chief and others to resign.

Last month a spokesman for the DOJ said that the report would “provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events.”

Texas politicians including Greg Abbott have also criticised the Uvalde Police Department for releasing information about the shooting that by its own admission was inaccurate.

“It does seem clear protocols weren’t followed,” Congressman Dan Crenshaw said in May. “So, let’s let the investigation play out, but it’s hard not to see how someone doesn’t get fired for this.”