What To Know Today
‘Systemic failures and egregious poor decision making’ undermined response in Uvalde. A 77-page report from a Texas House committee found that nearly 400 law enforcement officers — most of them federal or state — were at Robb Elementary School during the May 24 shooting, but that no agency seized the initiative to have an incident commander on the scene. The report blamed many people for that, including Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo. He previously told The Texas Tribune he didn’t consider himself the incident commander, though the new report noted that Arredonodo had co-authored the school district’s active-shooter response plan that would have put his position in charge. The report also criticized state law enforcement officials for misleading the public in the days after the shooting and noted that the gunman fired more than 100 rounds before police were inside, suggesting that most victims died right away. But, the report added: “It is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.” Fallout begins: Shortly after the report was published, a Uvalde police officer who was the acting chief of the city’s Police Department during the shooting was suspended.
An array of shocking missed warning signs. The report also provided grim new details about the 18-year-old suspect, including that fellow online gamers had given the nickname “school shooter” a year before the shooting; that he had a history of animal cruelty; and that he frequently made violent threats toward women online and in person. Despite falling behind in school and being identified as “at-risk,” he never received specialized services, the report said, and he eventually was removed from school last fall over performance and missing class. The report found that no one reported him to authorities over many violent warnings in the months before the shooting.
Mall shooting in Indianapolis suburb leaves three dead, two injured. A man armed with a rifle and several ammunition magazines walked into a mall in the town of Greenwood on Sunday evening and opened fire inside a food court before a 22-year-old armed bystander fatally shot him, police said. A 12-year-old girl and another person were hospitalized in stable condition. The bystander “was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he began,” said the Greenwood police chief.
Introducing the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The line went live on Saturday and is an alternative to calling 911 for people in distress and will route callers through more than 200 local and state crisis centers across the country. “When a person calls 988, they can expect to have a conversation with a trained, compassionate crisis counselor who will talk with them about what they’re experiencing,” said Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, the administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. But experts have also warned that the rollout could be sluggish in some areas, with fewer than half of state or regional public health officials telling the RAND Corporation in a survey last month that they were confident about being fully ready for 988. See our guide on where to find help if you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts or depression.
Feds seek 15-year sentence for alleged militia member who attacked the U.S. Capitol while armed. That’s according to a court filing prosecutors filed against Guy Wesley Reffitt, of Texas, who allegedly had a holstered handgun when he took part in the insurrection. A U.S. District judge is scheduled to sentence Reffitt on August 1. The longest sentence for any insurrection defendant has been just over five years — for attacking a police officer.
Data Point
—3.4 percent — the year-over-year drop in murders so far in 2022, according to the most recently available data from 91 cities compiled by criminologist Jeff Asher. [AH Datalytics]
