The report is expected to focus on the facts of the attack, include a chronological sequence of events, a timeline, a law enforcement manifesto and details about the shooter, a source previously told CNN. It is expected to clear up conflicting accounts of what happened, include verbatim quotes from sworn testimony and show that the failure of law enforcement that day was much bigger than one person or one agency, one source said.
Members of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s superintendent and police officers, the district superintendent, the school’s principal, a teacher and custodial staff were among those who testified behind closed doors before the commission — with approximately 40 souls testified, according to one source.
Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows, the committee’s chairman, said last month that the group would do “everything in its power” to provide facts and answers about what happened “leading up to, during and after this tragedy.” Families of Expectations victims to receive the report and surveillance corridor video, without audio, of the law enforcement response Sunday morning to allow them to review it before meeting with members of the investigative committee. The surveillance footage was leaked and published by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper on Tuesday, sparking outrage from both local officials and families who said they were blindsided and disrespected by the unexpected release. Here’s what we know about the expected report. In a statement after the video was published by the newspaper, Burroughs said that while he was glad that part of the video was made public, he was “also disappointed by the victims’ families and the Uvalde community’s requests that you watch the video first and don’t have certain images and sound of the violence not achieved.”
The commission’s report and video are expected to be released at the same time as the meeting with family members on Sunday. A press conference is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, where members of the press can ask questions of the committee. CNN will read the report once it becomes public and will update this developing story.
The report comes nearly eight weeks after an 18-year-old gunman walked into Robb Elementary and opened fire in a classroom, killing 19 children and two teachers. Key questions about the police response to the shooting have remained unanswered ever since. Chief among them: why authorities waited more than an hour in a school hallway before confronting and killing the shooter, a move that law enforcement experts say could potentially cost lives. DPS Director Col. Stephen McCraw condemned law enforcement’s response to the attack, calling it a “gross failure” in a Texas Senate committee hearing last month and blamed the scene commander, whom state authorities identified as District Police Chief Pedro “Pete Arredondo.
“The only thing stopping a corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on the scene who decided to put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children,” McCraw said at the time.
But Arredondo, who was placed on administrative leave by the school district, told the Texas Tribune last month that he did not consider himself the incident commander and suggested another employee took control of the larger response. “He assumed the role of a front-line responder,” the newspaper wrote of the chief. Arredondo testified behind closed doors in Austin before a House investigative committee in June.
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