Uvalde school district suspends entire police force after mass shooting

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has placed their police force on leave (Picture: AP)

The Texas school district where the Robb Elementary School shooting took place has suspended their entire police force.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has placed their police force on leave due to ‘recent developments,’ the district said on Friday.

The school district said that they were waiting to make decisions about staffing until two investigations were finished, one by the Texas Police Chiefs Association and another by a private investigation firm.

However, the district decided to act sooner.

Police walk near Robb Elementary School while responding to the shooting in May (Picture: AP)

‘Recent developments have uncovered additional concerns with department operations,’ stated the district.

The district did not say exactly what developments lead to this decision. However, the district recently faced renewed outrage when CNN reported that the UCISD Police had recently hired a Texas Department of Public Safety officer who arrived at the scene of the shooting within two minutes but failed to stop the shooter.

The officer, Crimson Elizondo, is one of seven Department of Public Safety officers under investigation for their actions at the tragedy in May.

A man holds protest signs as the Texas House investigative committee prepares to present it’s full report on the shootings at Robb Elementary School (Picture: AP)

Family, parents and friends file out of a meeting where Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was dismissed by the Board of Trustees of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (Picture: AP)

CNN also reported that Elizondo would be working at an elementary school where some of the survivors from the massacre at Robb would be filtering to. Elizondo was fired less than one day after the report was released.

Two district officials were also placed on administrative leave – Lt Miguel Hernandez and Ken Mueller. Hernandez appears to be the highest ranking member of the UCISD police, according to the district’s website.

The district fired their chief of police, Pete Arredondo, in August.

Investigators search for evidences outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas (Picture: AP)

The district said the results of the two simultaneous investigations will ‘guide the rebuilding of the department and the hiring of a new Chief of Police.’

The Texas Department of Public Safety will provide additional officers to protect Uvalde schools until the investigations have been completed.

Robb Elementary school became the site of the third deadliest school shooting in US history when a gunman killed 21 students and teachers and injured another 18.

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