What to expect from the highest level of review yet of Uvalde mass shooting

Nearly two years after the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde, the U.S. Department of Justice is expected to release its analysis of how law enforcement responded that day.

A shooter killed 19 students and two teachers in May 2022.

Attorney Jamal Alsaffar and others at National Trial Law represent about 10 impacted families, from survivors to victims.

"It's brutal," he said of the emotional toll on families, from that day and the days since. "It’s unrelenting, the pain that you have from this."

Alsaffar said his families have been seeking transparency about law enforcement's response, as well as accountability.

He said they were grateful for the Texas House's report that came eight weeks after the attack, which found “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision-making” during the massacre.

"The first report that came out from the House was encouraging that we would have transparency and we would then launch into the next phase, which was the investigation by the state and the county DA. But the opposite happened, stalling, covering up the information, not producing the information. It's almost two years and we don't even have an investigation yet, much less an indictment that's come from the DA," Alsaffar said.

Alex Del Carmen, Associate Dean of Criminology at Tarleton State University, said the DOJ's report will likely reinforce some of the Texas House's findings.

"I think some of the takeaways are likely going to be that there was lack of leadership on the ground, that the leadership that was on the ground was not coordinated with the other agencies that were there," Del Carmen said.

He said the DOJ panel has had more time, resources, funding, and combined experience than the state, though, and will likely have more details in their report.

"Why is it that parents were detained from having to go in to try to rescue their children? Why was the information that came out initially wrong?" He said.

Craig Miller, a law enforcement consultant, said we have seen some changes since the state House's report, like House Bill 3, which requires an armed guard at all public and charter schools.

"There’s been a lot of funds that have been made available to school districts across the state to help enhance their safety concerns or safety needs that they have," said Miller. "Working with the [Texas Education Agency] and putting together a team down there, everyone working in conjunction with the Texas School Safety Center, I think all that is important."

Miller, who is also a former Dallas Deputy Chief and former Dallas Independent School District police chief, said school districts and police departments also communicate more often, and better, now.

"I think that's one of the important things, because too often this hand thinks this hand is doing something, and really they're not doing what they think they should be doing," Miller said.

But all that falls short of accountability, said Del Carmen.

"There were many people that are probably responsible for many of the mishaps that took place that day that are still essentially have not been held liable for what happened," he said.

Alsaffar agreed.

"That's what's been so frustrating, is that there clearly were almost 400 law enforcement officers there who violated policy, violated procedure, violated common sense, and watched and listened while children were dying and getting murdered. And yet, we have almost zero out of that 400 who have been held accountable," he said.

"That's what's been so frustrating, is that there clearly were almost 400 law enforcement officers there who violated policy, violated procedure, violated common sense, and watched and listened while children were dying and getting murdered. And yet, we have almost zero out of that 400 who have been held accountable."

Jamal Alsaffar, Attorney for several Uvalde families

Both Miller and Del Carmen do expect more accountability from the DOJ's report, as well as recommendations of best practices.

"I think that the most important thing is going to be accountability, and what really took place in that one-hour-plus time where law enforcement failed to go into that school and what contributed to that and who was involved in making those decisions," Miller said.

Del Carmen said the report could also speed up court processes for families and their attorneys.

Alsaffar said he and his families hope the DOJ offers a "very detailed, critical analysis of what went wrong, because you can't fix something if you don't acknowledge how broken it is."

He said law enforcement needs to learn how to respond to mass shootings, so they don't have a repeat of that day in May.

"We're talking about the parents and then the kids that had to watch this massacre happen, and kids who knew their heroes were right out the door but were not doing anything to rescue them. That damage is never going to go away," Alsaffar said.

Brett Cross was among the parents waiting anxiously to learn what would be included in the report Wednesday afternoon.

Cross son Uziyah was among the students killed on that May afternoon.

"I'm hoping that it will tell us which officers did what, or lack thereof, and what they didn't do, and I'm hoping that a recommendation comes out that these officers are removed from their respected forces," said Cross.

Cross said he also hopes the report unveils the role DPS played in the response.

It's one of many questions he's fought tirelessly to get answers to for nearly two years.

"I'm exhausted, but I won't stop because my son deserved that. My son deserves every time that somebody says his name or remembers him. He deserves that. He deserves more. He deserved a chance at life that got stripped away from him while officers sat outside. He deserves the world. And I will do anything in my power until my last breath to make sure that he is remembered and to help people the way that he wanted to help people," he said.