By Brittany Anderson
HAYS COUNTY — Gun violence: it’s a conversation that has been had time and time again, and is once more at the forefront of the heart and minds of many people.
State Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) held a gun violence town hall on July 20 at Kyle City Hall to share the report of the house committee formed to investigate the Uvalde Police Department’s response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in May, as well as discuss ways in which county and state leaders are working to effectively address this epidemic.
Zwiener reiterated that while the legislature will not meet until January 2023, unless Gov. Greg Abbott calls for a special session, conversations are being had about this issue that will help prepare them to make policy suggestions.
“A lot of my concern in terms of looking at what the statewide response will be is that without very intentional organizing and engagement, the response will just look like minimizing the severity, not reducing the frequency,” Zwiener said.
The 84-page report was done by the Texas House Committee on the Robb Elementary Shooting, created especially for this incident by Dade Phelan, Speaker of the Texas House. The committee consisted of three members: Dustin Burrows, chair; Joe Moody, vice chair; and Eva Guzman, a former member of the Texas Supreme Court.
Zwiener said that their purpose was not to propose policy, but to do a detailed investigation into what happened, using their power of subpoena to access records, review body camera footage and interview families, Robb Elementary administration and Uvalde first responders. The report remains ‘preliminary,’ with the understanding that the committee could learn new information.
At the town hall meeting, Zwiener shared the condensed seven-page report with key findings:
• Poor Wi-Fi connectivity in the school delayed lockdown alerts for many teachers, and the school intercom system was not used to communicate the lockdown. Additionally, the frequency of less-dangerous bailout-related alerts (when undocumented immigrants flee their vehicles and attempt to outrun police) diluted the school’s readiness to act on the May 24 alert.
• The school had recurring problems with properly maintaining its doors and locks and had a culture of noncompliance with safety policies requiring doors be kept locked — although Zwiener noted that, “If our kid’s safety relies on every single door being locked, we have a bigger problem.”
• The attacker had an unstable home life and developed sociopathic and violent tendencies, but received no mental health assistance. His frequent school absences also meant the district had no concrete information to have sooner identified him as a threat.
• On the day of the shooting, there was no law enforcement officer on campus. The incident began under the jurisdiction of Uvalde PD, but as the threat moved to the campus, it became Uvalde CISD PD’s jurisdiction.
• After entering through an unlocked west door, the attacker had three minutes before first responders arrived, and fired an estimated 100 rounds. Responders attempted to breach the classroom, but were met with fire from the attacker. They then lost “critical momentum” by treating the scenario as a “barricaded subject” instead of an “active shooter” scenario.
• UCISD’s active shooter policy called for UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo to be the incident commander in any active shooter response. He was one of the first responders to arrive to the west side of the building, but did not assume his preassigned responsibility of incident command. Instead, he remained in the hallway where he lacked reliable communication with other law enforcement and was unable to implement staging or command and control.
• Hundreds of law enforcement officers arrived at the scene within the next hour, which was described as “chaotic” without “any person obviously in charge or directing law enforcement response.” Officers were described as having a “lackadaisical approach,” likely because they were given and relied upon inaccurate information. Others, however, “had enough information to know better.”
• Chief Arrendondo and other officers at the south end of the building were focused on gaining access to the classrooms and protective equipment for officers. Law enforcement officers on the north side of the building were also waiting for further instructions, pending protective gear and breaching equipment.
• Officers acted under the assumption that doors to rooms 111 and 112 were locked, though they were not. The BORTAC (Border Patrol Tactical Unit) commander on scene waited until arranging a rifle-rated shield and obtaining a working master key before attempting to breach the classrooms.
• It is likely that most of the victims perished immediately during the attacker’s initial barrage of gunfire, but given information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and later died on the way to the hospital, it is plausible that some could have survived had they not waited 73 additional minutes for rescue.
“There was a judgment call made that it made more sense to get the kids who they knew were in the building out than to breach a room if they weren’t sure there were kids,” Zwiener said, following the report reading. “A big question I’m left with is, when did that understanding shift and should that level of an assumption ever have been made? I think the answer to that is no.”
Zwiener said that what happened in Uvalde was a failure of police response, but that one of the most catastrophic failures was that the attacker was able to get his hands on two AR-style rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition within a week of him turning 18, and not raise any flags.
Zwiener said that her focus in the legislature is addressing this problem through the lens of social media, mental health, school security and firearm safety. The Committee on Youth Health & Safety, initially formed in 2021 by the Texas House in light of COVID-19 and its effects on youth mental health, has also been charged to address school safety specifically.
Texas ranks last in the nation for access to mental health care; in Texas schools specifically, the school counselor to student ratio is 1:391 when the recommended ratio is 1:200. Zwiener also spoke about the assault weapon ban expiration in 2004 and how Texas’ permitless carry, which was passed in 2021, has added fuel to the gun violence fire — which goes even beyond school shootings, into conversations of suicide.
Kyle Mayor Pro Tem Robert Rizo and Kyle police detective Pedro Carrasco were also at the July 20 town hall.
Carrasco spoke about the free CRASE (Citizens Response to Active Shooter Events) program, in which certified trainers in the KPD teach people how to respond in active shooter events, as well as other life-threatening crisis situations. The program is suitable for people of all ages, although Carrasco advises parents to use their best judgment when it comes to very young children participating as the course can be intense.
Rizo shared that while prayers go a long way, when he visited Uvalde, he knew he had to do everything in his power as a representative of the city to help their community with the resources they need and try to bring some healing.
Rizo, along with other community members, have continued to organize donation drives and take items to Uvalde, providing residents with everything from coloring books and stuffed animals to snacks and hygiene items.
“You don’t understand the gravity of this until you get there,” Rizo said. “You see the elementary; when you go to the square where they have all the little crosses. It’s tough. I struggled when I first got there. It really hit me. It’s hard to explain the emotions I had.”
Like Rizo, Zwiener has also traveled to Uvalde to help out and pay her respects. One of the things that stood out to her the most at the memorial, she said, were messages from parents of victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018 in Parkland, Florida, with one hitting the hardest:
“I’m so sorry we didn’t get it fixed in time for you.”
