By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Friday disputed a recent report about the May 24 school shooting that said a Uvalde police officer awaiting a supervisor’s permission to fire his rifle missed a chance to take out the shooter who went on to massacre 19 children and two teachers.
The report published earlier this week by the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) at Texas State University was commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety. ALERRT did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The officer asked his unidentified supervisor for permission to shoot, according to the report. It added that the permission never came but concluded the officer would have been justified in using deadly force.
“The report …. does not give a complete and accurate account of what happened at Robb Elementary School. No Uvalde police department officer saw the shooter on May 24 prior to him entering the school,” the mayor said in a statement on Friday.
The Uvalde response has already come under withering criticism from senior law enforcement officials, elected officials and the public.
Outrage has focused on the widely reported detail that as many as 19 officers waited more than an hour in a hallway outside the classrooms where children were slaughtered before a U.S. Border Patrol-led tactical team finally made entry and killed the shooter.
No Uvalde police officers had any opportunity to take a shot at the gunman, the mayor added.
“A Uvalde Police Department officer saw someone outside, but was unsure of who he saw and observed children in the area as well. Ultimately, it was a coach with children on the playground, not the shooter.”
A separate state review into the shooting is being conducted at the request of District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee.
The U.S. Justice Department has also said it will review the law enforcement response in Uvalde and will make its findings public.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
