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Investigators conducting a criminal probe into the Uvalde school shooting — and the law enforcement response — are trying to determine whether any victims who died in the aftermath may have survived if police had intervened sooner.
Four victims — teacher Eva Mireles and three students — had heartbeats when they were rescued from the adjoining classrooms where they had been trapped with the shooter for more than an hour. All four died that day.
The Texas Rangers have asked Dr. Mark Escott, medical director for the Texas Department of Public Safety and chief medical officer for the city of Austin, to look into the injuries of the victims. In a statement, a city spokesperson said Escott will “lead an analysis of the injuries sustained by the Uvalde shooting victims to determine whether there may have been opportunities to save lives had emergency medical care been provided sooner.”
“Similar reviews have been conducted in the past following mass shooting incidents to learn lessons, influence policy development and improve responses to future incidents,” the spokesperson said.
Details of the inquiry, which is in its early stages, were first reported Thursday by the Austin American-Statesman. Officials with DPS did not immediately respond to an email.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary.
Eulalio “Lalo” Diaz Jr., a justice of the peace in Uvalde who was the on-duty coroner on May 24, said in an interview last month that he thinks four victims who were transported out of the school — Mireles, Jackie Cazares, Jose Flores and Xavier Lopez — may have survived if first responders got them medical attention sooner. He also noted that there were other injured teachers and students who survived even after police waited more than an hour to enter the classroom where the gunman was.
“Could more have survived? Probably. We won’t know until the final autopsy report comes out from the medical examiner,” he said. “That’ll tell you exactly where they were shot. What injury happened if they hit a major artery, or if it was just a wound in the torso area that allowed them to bleed out a longer period of time. I won’t know that, I won’t be able to tell you for sure. But just the fact that some people did survive tells you that maybe they could have, everybody has a different situation and a different type of wound.”
Nearly 400 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting, but none breached the classroom full of kids where the gunman was for more than an hour after the shooting began, even as some children in the rooms called 911 for help.
The district attorney in Uvalde, Christina Mitchell, has called the investigation a criminal inquiry but has not shared much information about whether charges will be brought against any officers who responded. She reiterated earlier this week that she had not made any charging decisions yet.
“I will be unable to make a decision as to potential charges on anyone, including law enforcement, until I receive the complete investigation,” Mitchell said. “I have consistently stated that if the criminal investigation reveals any conduct or lack of conduct which meets the elements of a criminal offense in the state of Texas, I will seek an indictment by a Uvalde grand jury.”
Mitchell did not immediately respond to an email Thursday morning.
Texas Rangers expect to finish their part of the investigation by the end of the year and send their findings to the district attorney, DPS Director Steve McCraw said last week.
In September, McCraw said that he would resign if his troopers had “any culpability” in the flawed response. Ninety-one of the 376 law enforcement officers who responded were from state police.
Facing calls to resign last week, McCraw said, “DPS as an institution, right now, did not fail the community.” If it did, he said, he would resign.
He added, during a Public Safety Commission meeting, that the actions of all troopers would be scrutinized.
“The question is how many kids did die in that room, or teachers died, because they missed that ‘magic hour,'” he said, referring to a critical period during which someone suffering from survivable injuries must be treated. “You gotta stop the dying. And they were in there with an active shooter and we didn’t get through that door, we didn’t go through the windows, plain and simple, and we — law enforcement — should have done it.”
