DALLAS.- A prosecutor in Texas says the investigation into police failures during the school massacre in Uvalde will continue in 2024, contrary to expectations that a special jury will meet before the end of the year.
Uvalde County Prosecutor Christina Mitchell stated a few days ago that her staff continues to investigate the slow and hesitant police response to the massacre that occurred in May 2022, in which 19 students and two teachers died.
Investigators sent Mitchell their preliminary findings in January and she had previously said prosecutors would present evidence to a grand jury this year.
The possibility of criminal charges against some of the nearly 400 officers who responded to Robb Elementary School, and who waited more than an hour before confronting the killer, has loomed over Uvalde since state lawmakers accused police at all levels of failing to comply. with its obligation to “protect innocent lives above its own safety.” The issue has divided the community of 15,000, and as he spends more time on the investigation, families’ frustration with the attorney general grows.
“It’s obvious that she is not doing her job,” said Velma Lisa Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of the teachers killed. “I don’t understand how they expect us to live in a place where there are no consequences.”
Mitchell did not answer questions from The Associated Press about when she expects there will be a grand jury, what the focus of her investigation will be and what criminal charges she is considering.
“My office is still dissecting the Texas Rangers investigation, which is quite voluminous,” the official said in response by email. “Once we conclude our review of the Rangers investigation, we will convene a grand jury.”
The Rangers, part of the Texas Department of Public Safety, sent prosecutors their preliminary findings earlier this year. But Mitchell says the agency’s investigation continued after that, and he told the San Antonio Express-News that he will need until the end of 2023 to present a case to the jury because it was only in July that he received the full file.
Source: With information from AP
