In the aftermath of mass shootings, a lot of attention is devoted to the shooter’s motives. That’s not a path I’m interested in. The exploration of “but why” usually erases societal roles by hyper-focusing on individual “causes” like mental illness, rather than American conservatives’ full-on love affair with military-grade weapons. Instead, following Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, I’d like to focus on the intentions of another group entirely: law enforcement.
A plethora of agencies were present at Robb Elementary School Tuesday afternoon, including U.S. Border Patrol, the Uvalde Police Department, and federal marshals. Officials, however, keep contradicting themselves, so the exact timeline of what officers were doing there is muddy. At first, officials said a school officer and the shooter exchanged fire. That can no longer be confirmed. What is known for certain is that the 21 victims — including 19 children — were in one fourth-grade classroom. Officials said the shooter was barricaded in that classroom for up to an hour. But did he barricade himself in, or did law enforcement trap him there? That’s also unclear. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McGraw told the Associated Press, “[Law enforcement] did engage immediately. They did contain [the shooter] in the classroom.” It was a Border Patrol tactical agent who eventually killed the gunman.
