Will the Uvalde police be criminally prosecuted?

On Sunday, May 29, the Department of Justice announced that it will be conducting a review of the police response to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The inquiry comes at the request of Uvalde mayor, Don McLaughlin.

The public is stunned and outraged that a gunman spent more than an hour inside a Robb Elementary school classroom before the police entered to ultimately kill him. Perhaps lives could have been saved had the police officers gone in immediately.

After the DOJ investigation is completed, the matter will be presented to the United States Attorney's Office to determine if criminal charges should be filed. The issue will be whether the Uvalde Police were negligent in how they handled the situation and if so, did their negligence result in the deaths of the students. If it did, then they could be charged with child endangerment and/or voluntary manslaughter.

In 2019, the Texas legislature passed a measure requiring that all school police officers undergo particularized training on how to handle school shootings. Its premise is that an arriving officer's first priority is to move in and confront the attacker. This was passed in response to the Columbine and Parkland school shootings. It has been reported that the Uvalde police participated in this training within the past few months so the fact that they did not immediately confront the shooter is puzzling.

The only other previous police officer to be charged for failing to confront a gunman in the context of a school shooting was in Parkland, Florida. In 2019, Scot Peterson who worked as a security officer at the campus, was charged with seven counts of neglect of a child and three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury for allegedly taking cover outside the school while a shooting was taking place. His defense is that he is being made the sacrificial lamb for the tragedy.

These types of cases put prosecutors in very difficult positions. On one hand, prosecutors want to show the public that they will hold those accountable who break the law. On the other hand, they don't want to overcharge a case and risk defeat. In addition, a criminal filing against law enforcement could deter people from going into the law enforcement profession, for fear of not having the support of the government behind them. Another challenge is if you decide to file charges, who gets charged? Just the officer in command of the scene, or everyone who followed orders that they knew were not consistent with their safety response training?

The investigation has just begun so it is too soon to tell what federal prosecutors will do. In general, the greater the tragedy and public outrage, the more pressure is placed on prosecutors to act. Unless the evidence shows that the responding Uvalde police officers had good reason to wait as long as they did until they confronted the shooter, heads will most certainly roll.