When government fails, it’s in the interest of government officials to hide the details of the failure as much as possible. That’s why it takes so much effort to pry information out of them using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. When that doesn’t work, the public has to seek relief from the judiciary via lawsuits.
The most spectacular law enforcement failure of the recent past was the police response to the 2022 Uvalde school shooting. There’s a lot of information out there already exposing what happened. However, that didn’t prevent governmental foot-dragging when media organizations sought further information.
What resulted was a yearslong lawsuit filed by news organizations. Last month, new records were released by the Uvalde County and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD). Note that there’s still a lawsuit pending against the Texas Department of Public Safety for their records.
The newly released records add more information to what we already know. Parents can be heard begging the police to intervene. The general chaos, with the police officers unsure of the shooter’s location, is revealed.
What stood out to me is information on the shooter himself. As is almost always the case, he was a “known commodity” who could have been stopped long before he armed himself for his rampage.
Gunman’s mother told deputies she was scared of son months before attack (Archived link)
Law enforcement records showed sheriff’s deputies were called to a physical disturbance at the home of Ramos’ mother, Adriana Reyes, a few months before the attack. She told deputies that he became angry and kicked a wireless modem after she turned off the internet. She had to hold him down to calm him, according to an incident report.
She told deputies Ramos never hit her, but they made a note in their report: “Ms Reyes stated she was scared of Salvador and wanted help.” Ramos’ grandmother took him to her house and deputies took no further action.
Ramos would end up shooting his grandmother before attacking the school. She survived.
School records, meanwhile, showed a pattern of spiraling trouble that emerged at a young age.
Ramos was described as a “motivated thinker and learner” in kindergarten, but by middle school he was getting suspended or disciplined for harassment and bullying. He also failed to meet minimum statewide testing standards.
In October 2021 — seven months before the shooting — Ramos withdrew from high school because of “poor academic performance, lack of attendance.” Records showed he failed nearly all his classes.
Another AP article (archived link) says that the police were called to the residence on two consecutive nights:
Sheriff’s deputies went to the gunman’s home on two consecutive nights before the attack because he was arguing with his mother over Wi-Fi and broken video game equipment after she turned off the internet, according to county records released Tuesday.
Yet another Associated Press article (archived link) has the following:
Shooter’s records
Salvador Ramos’ academic records showed a student who as a kindergartener was described as “a remarkable little boy” who was a “very hard worker,” but he went on to be suspended multiple times in junior high and withdrew from high school because of “poor academic performance.”
The records showed a student spiraling further into academic and behavioral problems, cut classes and confrontations with teachers through middle school. By ninth grade, he was classified as “at risk.”
It’s already known that the assailant had a history of animal cruelty, which is an indicator of a sick mind. His coworkers at a fast food restaurant even nicknamed him “school shooter.” As with too many of these cases, there were warning signs that were missed.
The end result of this is a political tendency to go for lazy, simple “solutions” that attack the rights of everyone else. After all, the peaceable among us will tend to comply with even the most egregious laws, while those who violate the most fundamental laws of nature won’t care whether a rifle’s barrel is under 16” long or about any “duty to inform” about your carry weapon when pulled over.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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