CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The driver, who was one of three people arrested in connection with the case, tried to hide among the dying migrants.

The timeline is still unclear for demolishing the school building. The district has plans to replace it with a memorial park.

Frederick Frazier’s runoff opponent accused him of posing as a city code compliance officer to get campaign signs taken down. Frazier said his opponent is to blame in the case.

The move comes weeks after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary. Uvalde CISD police Chief Pete Arredondo, one of the first to respond, and state officials have provided differing stories about what happened inside the school.

Experts said the plan, announced at the state GOP convention on Saturday, is not realistic and possibly not legal.

Relatives of the victims and other members of the community also called for the ousting of Pete Arredondo, who is the police chief of the city’s school district and a newly elected council member.

Texas has more than 1,200 school districts, but the education commissioner promised plans for the review will be completed this summer.

New information released by law enforcement sources and the director of the Department of Public Safety tells a different story about police response to the shooting than Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo.

Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez said he is ethically opposed to the death penalty, but an employee wrongfully requested the execution date against his wishes. Gonzalez sought to cancel the execution two days later.

The Texas Tribune has reviewed law enforcement transcripts and footage that federal and state investigators are examining after the May 24 tragedy.

The senators said they would support proposals like raising the age to legally own an assault weapon from 18 to 21, creating red flag laws and regulating private gun sales.

Some LGBTQ Texans are trying to navigate plans to commemorate the catalyst of their civil rights movement with concerns about safety after 31 members of a Texas-based hate group were charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event in Idaho.

The unremitting pace of ritualized mourning ended Thursday as the town buried an 11-year-old victim of the Robb Elementary shooting. Survivors now face less structured grief, starting each day knowing they will live it out differently than they should have.

Officials have called for more armed officers on campuses in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. Experts and some parents, though, say more law enforcement on campus doesn’t necessarily make schools safer.

Red flag laws are designed to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has championed the bipartisan agreement.

The Department of Justice says the weapons illegally sold by Demontre Antwon Hackworth, 31, were later used in over a dozen crimes, including the killing of a 21-year-old Black transgender woman.

The nine pages of blue ink on white lined paper, first published by the Houston television station KTRK, show how the governor prepared his remarks for a news conference May 25, the day after the shooting — presumably based on information being given to him.

Authorities say the 31 suspects are part of an extremist group founded in Texas after the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Eight of those arrested Saturday are from North Texas, officials said.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was one of the lead negotiators for the proposal, which would expand background checks for people under 21 and encourage states to enact “red flag” laws. President Joe Biden and House Democrats had wanted to go further.

The review came after Gonzalo Lopez escaped on May 12 and eventually killed five people.

The Texas School District Police Chiefs’ Association met just weeks after the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Zach about the police response to the mass shooting in Uvalde.

This week, Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo and his attorney granted an exclusive interview to The Texas Tribune to detail his version of what happened inside Robb Elementary School on May 24, when a shooter killed 21 people.

Criticized by law enforcement experts for slowness in taking out the shooter, Pete Arredondo described an agonizing wait for a key that would work. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, he said he hadn’t spoken out sooner because he didn’t want to compound his hometown’s grief or point blame.

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, the chair of the investigating committee, said he couldn’t promise a timeline for the review and that witnesses will be questioned in private.

In a bulletin, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that recent and upcoming events could be “exploited to justify acts of violence against a range of possible targets.”

Authorities have been criticized for waiting over an hour to enter the school and confront the shooter. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said law enforcement agencies have promised to cooperate with the federal inquiry.

The review comes after Gonzalo Lopez escaped from a prison bus last month. Authorities say he killed a family of five before they found and killed him.

Cornyn on Monday made clear in a Senate floor speech that there are limits to what he and the Senate GOP conference are willing to support in their efforts to pass bipartisan gun legislation.

More than 250 self-declared gun enthusiasts, including donors who have contributed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaigns, have signed on to an open letter supporting Sen. John Cornyn’s efforts at bipartisan gun reform legislation.

The revelation is the latest to point to deficiencies and missteps in authorities’ response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School. Police opted to wait for reinforcements and tactical gear, taking more than an hour to confront and take down the shooter.

Authorities say Gonzalo Lopez killed a man and his four grandchildren in Leon County. He escaped from a prison bus nearly three weeks ago.

Through music and painting, artists have begun works to preserve the lives lost in the Robb Elementary School shooting. “We want them to be monumental,” one artist said. “Because those lives should’ve been monumental.”

As chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, it was Arredondo’s call to wait more than an hour for backup instead of ordering officers on scene to immediately charge the shooter.

Phelan said it is an “outrage” that officials still do not have a clear picture of what happened during the shooting. The committee’s findings will inform the House’s legislative response.

Uvalde offers mental health resources for the victims and considers rebuilding the school where the shooting took place as the community tends to its invisible wounds.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, said the commanding officer at the scene of the shooting was not informed about the calls that Uvalde police were receiving, calling the lack of coordination a “system failure.”

They were high school sweethearts. Irma Garcia taught at Robb Elementary for her entire 23-year career. Her husband died of a heart attack days after she was shot.

Several demonstrators who participated in the protests in response to George Floyd’s murder were seriously injured when they were struck by police with “less than lethal” beanbag rounds. The officers’ suit says they did not receive training on how to use this type of ammunition.

Longtime Uvalde residents say the city is a hunting mecca and the love for guns goes right along with it. But some would now support measures like raising the age limit to buy AR-style weapons or monitoring high-volume ammunition purchases.

The 1966 University of Texas Tower shooting remains clouded by myths, including the myth of the “good guy with a gun.” It left too many Americans with only evil to blame — and not our leaders, our policies and ourselves.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said a local police chief had stopped cooperating. It also walked back a statement that a teacher had propped open a door used by the shooter to enter the school.

She wanted to be an art teacher. Her favorite color was purple. She was laid to rest three weeks after her birthday.

In addressing mass shootings, Texas’ top officials have tailored their responses to the wishes of some of their most outspoken voters. The results haven’t changed because we haven’t changed.

The conservative, predominantly Hispanic town has long supported law enforcement. But some wonder how — or if — the heavily criticized response to the shooting will change that.

Residents of this town, which is nicknamed “the Crossroads of America,” grapple with the horror of losing 21 lives.

The Texas Department of Public Safety previously said local police made key errors. A specialized team of federal officers didn’t enter the school until more than an hour after the shooter arrived at the school.

Facing yet another community grieving after a mass shooting, the president replied, ‘We will.’ But Congress hasn’t managed to change gun policy for decades.

State officials provided a timeline of the massacre and have corrected crucial details amid public demands for information on how authorities handled the situation.

Loving children and beloved educators were killed at Robb Elementary School on May 24 in the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.