White House calls Uvalde shooting report ‘devastating’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday called a new report detailing the inaction of officers during the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting “devastating” and “unacceptable.”

President Biden was aware of the report, which was released Sunday, Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing.

“I will say this: It is devastating … and frankly unacceptable, the report that came out just yesterday. It adds on more questions to how law enforcement reacted,” she said.

Jean-Pierre noted the Department of Justice is doing an independent review of actions by law enforcement in response to the shooting.

A Texas House investigative committee on Sunday released a scathing 77-page report detailing law enforcement failures in the response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in May that killed 19 children and two teachers.

In total, 376 law enforcement officers responded to the scene, but the classroom where the shooter was located was not breached for more than an hour, according to the document.

The report determined that despite the massive response, no individual or department appeared to take a leadership role to coordinate and direct a quick response to the incident.

Much of the criticism in the wake of the shooting centered around Pete Arredondo, the then-chief of the Uvalde school district police. The report identifies Arredondo as the natural person to take the role based on the agency’s training and policies.

“The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon,” the report stated.