DOJ report reveals collapse in reliable information during Uvalde shooting
UVALDE- The Department of Justice's 575-page review on the failures that led to the killings of 19 students and two teachers devoted a chapter to public communication.
A CBS New Texas I-Team inspection of the messages from government officials and law enforcement found the communication was misleading, contradictory, and wrong.
The narrative building up the bravery of law enforcement was false. Governor Greg Abbott, on the day following the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, said the incident could have been worse.
"And the reason it wasn't worse was because law enforcement did what they do. They showed amazing courage by running toward the gunfire," Abbott said.
The report said, "Many of the victims shared that this added to their pain during a challenging time."
When families and the media started questioning the alleged heroism, the stories unraveled, and law enforcement became defensive, as experienced by the I-Team.
The DOJ probe found misleading, contradicting, and inaccurate accounts of the shooting created confusion and an erosion of public trust.
The review found that 10-year-old Khloe Torres called 911 for help during the shooting rampage, as the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department posted on Facebook that staff and students were safe in the buildings.
According to the DOJ, sixteen minutes after the shooter was killed, the department posted he was in custody.
The jumble of communication continued, the DOJ said, as panicked parents searching for their children in chaos experienced conflicting messaging between Uvalde school officers and Uvalde city police.
At 12:23 pm, the reports said parents were told to pick up their child at the civic center. Seven minutes later, the confusion continued when parents were asked not to pick their kids up. Eight minutes after that message, the word was given to get their children. The report said at 12:55 pm, the decision had changed back to not coming to get the students.
To improve crisis communication, the DOJ offered 44 recommendations related to public communication, including planning for crisis communication, rapidly establishing who will act as the lead for official information, being transparent about mistakes, and correcting false information as soon as possible.
