‘Egregiously poor’ decisions as 376 officers rushed to Uvalde scene, report says

Grace Valencia, great aunt of shooting victim Uziyah Garcia, tries to hold back tears as she talks to the media after picking up a copy of the report (AP)

Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the scene of the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, but “egregiously poor decision-making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was finally confronted and killed, a damning report has found.

The 80-page document was the first to criticise both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in the South Texas town of Uvalde for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside two fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 pupils and two teachers.