Border Patrol cites muddied lines of authority in flawed response to Uvalde shootings

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Clearer lines of authority and better training are needed for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to effectively respond to mass shooter incidents such as the one in Uvalde, Texas, the agency said Thursday.

A lack of clear federal authority and muddled lines of command and control hampered the efforts of CBP agents to respond when an 18-year-old assailant killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, the agency said in a 203-page report .

The investigation was commissioned to look at CPB's role in the much-criticized law enforcement response to the massacre.

Former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was charged with 10 counts of child endangerment in connection with a separate probe into the flawed police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting, in which hundreds of law enforcement officers waited 77 minutes in a hallway before storming the room where the gunman was hiding and fatally shooting him.

Members of the US Border Patrol Tactical Unit, or BORTAC, were among the first to arrive at Robb Elementary, and although it has never been officially confirmed, reports indicated it was BORTAC team members who shot and killed the teen gunman.

And yet the CPB team's response was also criticized as inadequate due to conflicting lines of authority and miscommunication.

That judgment was confirmed by the agency's internal assessment that identified several key issues, including a lack of clear authority when federal agencies respond to mass-casualty criminal or critical incidents normally under the jurisdiction of local authorities.

Other key issues identified were a lack of command and control among multiple law enforcement agencies responding to a mass-casualty scene and "gaps in current training that do not address scenarios in which breaching tactics were required in cases involving locked doors to engage an armed suspect."

Recommendations to improve the situation were also offered in the report. They include changing the relevant policies governing CBP's interactions with local and state law enforcement agencies during mass casualty incidents, re-evaluating training standards, and improving operational methods "to better address the command-and-control issues that occurred during the incident."

"The active shooter incident at Robb Elementary School was a profound tragedy and deeply traumatic event," acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement . "The loss of innocent lives and the enduring emotional scars borne by the survivors, families, community and first responders are immeasurable.

"As our report indicates, we are committed to, and working with our federal, state, and local partners to ensure that our brave officers and agents have effective training, policy guidance, equipment, and legal authority to respond to critical incidents," he said.