US Justice Deparment to review Texas school shooting police response

THE US Justice Department will conduct an independent review of the police response to the recent mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, amid mounting questions over security personnel’s actions to stop the gunman. “The goal of the review is to 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,” said DoJ spokesman Anthony Coley in a statement. The review was requested by Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and “will be fair, transparent and independent,” Coley added. On Tuesday, a teen gunman stormed Robb Elementary School in the small Texas town of Uvalde, killing 19 children and two teachers, the latest in an epidemic of deadly mass shootings in the United States. In the wake of the shooting, the behaviour of the police has come under severe scrutiny as accounts emerge of their slow reaction. Texas authorities admitted on Friday that as many as 19 police officers were in the school hallway for nearly an hour before breaching the room the gunman was in and killing him, saying the officers mistakenly thought he had stopped killing and was now barricaded. Officials now call this delay a “wrong decision” but parents have expressed fury. AFP