Uvalde Police Chief Resigns

(RepublicanJournal.org) – The police chief of Uvalde, Texas, has resigned. His department has faced savage criticism after officers waited more than an hour before intervening in the 2022 mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. A new report commissioned by the city council has cleared the police of wrongdoing in the atrocity, but the victims’ relatives are still furious.

Uvalde Cops Criticized for Inaction

On May 24, 2022, Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old former student at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, entered the school with a semiautomatic rifle. Ramos opened fire at about 11:29 a.m. and the first police officer was on scene less than two minutes later. By 11:35 a.m. there were multiple armed officers at the school while Ramos had locked himself in a classroom with wounded survivors.

However, the police then waited for specialist door-breaching equipment to arrive. In the end, a federal Border Patrol tactical unit entered the school, broke into the classroom, and killed Ramos at 12:50 p.m. — 74 minutes after the first police arrived on-scene.

Uvalde police faced serious criticism for their inaction, especially from the families of those who died in the classroom Ramos occupied. Many parents wondered if their children might have survived if officers had immediately assaulted the room and shot the gunman. On January 18, a Department of Justice report found that Uvalde law enforcement had failed in their response to the massacre; the report said the police had been poorly trained, badly led and their response was badly coordinated.

Meanwhile, Uvalde City Council commissioned its own report, which was released on March 7. This report, written by a former detective, reached very different conclusions. It admitted coordination and communications were poor, but absolved Uvalde cops of blame.

Police Chief Resigns

Despite his department being cleared of any wrongdoing by the report, which parents immediately dismissed as a whitewash, on March 12 Chief Daniel Rodriguez of Uvalde Police Department announced his resignation. In his statement, Rodriguez didn’t mention the Robb Elementary shooting at all, simply saying, “After much contemplation and consideration, I believe it is time for me to embark on a new chapter in my career.”

He’ll formally step down from the job on April 6, and Assistant Police Chief Homer Delgado will take over as an interim replacement.

Uvalde’s council is still telling frustrated parents it needs more time to decide what action to take — but the parents are losing patience. Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter was murdered by Ramos, slammed the official response as “a brothers’ pact. You protect your own.”