Uvalde school shooting: 5 Texas DPS troopers face formal investigation for actions

Five Department of Public Safety troopers, who were in Uvalde during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, are being investigated for their actions that day.

In an email from Colonel Steve McGraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, he stated, "Every agency that responded that day shares in this failure, including DPS."

According to DPS, five DPS law enforcement officers have been referred to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) where a formal investigation into their actions that day will take place. So far, two of those five officers have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the OIG investigation.

RELATED STORIES:

• DPS 'shares the failure' in Uvalde shooting response, says state's top cop in newly-released email
• Uvalde CISD students return to class for first time since shooting
• 16 Uvalde fourth graders waited an hour with wounded teacher

DPS also released an internal letter, which was sent by Col. McCraw to all DPS employees in July focused on school safety and an addition to the department’s protocol on active shooter situations. 

"DPS officers responding to an active shooter at a school will be authorized to overcome any delay in neutralizing an attacker. When a subject fires a weapon at a school he remains an active shooter until he is neutralized and is not to be treated as a barricaded subject," Col. McGraw says in the letter.

The letter from Col. McGraw also stated, "when a subject fires a weapon at a school, he remains an active shooter until he is neutralized, and is not to be treated as a barricaded suspect."

According to a Texas House report on the shooting, 376 law enforcement officers arrived at the shooting scene in Uvalde on May 24, 91 of them were members of state police.

Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the shooting.

Arredondo was fired from his role as Uvalde CISD police chief last month.

Col. McGraw called the response to the shooting an "abject failure" while testifying to a Texas Senate Committee in June, but faced criticism from some for laying the majority of the blame at the feet of Uvalde officers, when state and federal officers were also on scene.