DoJ launches investigation into police response to Uvalde school shooting

The US government on Sunday announced a federal investigation into the police response to the mass shooting at a Texas school five days ago as anger mounted over why armed officers waited more than one hour in the hall outside the classroom where the gunman killed 19 children and two teachers and wounded others.

He noted that the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, had requested the review.

Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents Uvalde, said that errors in the response to the school shooting may have contributed to more deaths, and he had spoken with the mother of one child who had died from a single gunshot.

The gunman who caused carnage at Robb elementary school was local 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who had reportedly made violent threats on social media and boasted about guns.

He legally bought the assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition he took into the school.

During the time that he had locked and barricaded himself into a classroom with the children and their teachers, one child made at least six calls to the 911 emergency number to plead for help from police, even as officers were right outside.