Report finds 'cascading failures' in Texas Robb Elementary school shooting that killed 21

Police officials who responded to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas failed to treat the killings as an active shooter situation, according to a newly-released report.

Authorities "demonstrated no urgency" in setting up a command post, the report said, as it also identified "cascading failures" in law enforcement’s handling of one of the deadliest massacres at a school in US history.

The Justice Department report, the most comprehensive federal accounting of the haphazard police response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.

It identifies a vast array of problems from failed communication and leadership to inadequate technology and training that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have, even as terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and agonised parents begged officers to go in.

"The victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School deserved better," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

"The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022 - and the response by officials in the hours and days after - was a failure.

"As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers - many of whom had been shot - were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside."

Even for a mass shooting that has already been the subject of intense scrutiny and in-depth examinations, the nearly 600-page Justice Department report adds to the public understanding of how police in Uvalde failed to stop an attack that killed 19 children and two staff members.

Uvalde, a community of more than 15,000, continues to struggle with the trauma left by the killing of 19 elementary students and two teachers, and remains divided on questions of accountability for officers' actions and inaction.

The shooting has already been picked over in legislative hearings, news reports and a damning report by Texas lawmakers who faulted law enforcement at every level with failing "to prioritise saving innocent lives over their own safety."

Uvalde school district officers arrived within three minutes of Ramos’ arrival at the school and ran toward the classroom, but as they approached, Ramos fired from inside the classroom.

Two officers were hit by shrapnel and police retreated to take cover.

"An active shooter with access to victims should never be considered and treated as a barricaded subject," the report says, with the word "never" emphasised in italics.

In the 20 months since the Justice Department announced its review, footage showing police waiting in a hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms where the gunman opened fire has become the target of national ridicule.

Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Uvalde on Wednesday ahead of the release of the report, visiting murals of the victims that have been painted around the centre of the town.

Later that night, Justice Department officials privately briefed family members at a community center in Uvalde before the findings were made public.

Berlinda Arreola, whose granddaughter was killed in the shooting, said following Wednesday night's meeting that accountability remained in the hands of local prosecutors who are separately conducting a criminal investigation into the police response.

"I have a lot of emotions right now. I don’t have a lot of words to say," she said.

The review by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services was launched just days after the shooting, and local prosecutors are still evaluating a separate criminal investigation by the Texas Rangers.

Several of the officers involved have lost their jobs.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell said in a statement on Wednesday that she had not been given an advance copy of the Justice Department’s report but had been informed it does not address any potential criminal charges.

How police respond to mass shootings around the country has been scrutinised since the tragedy in Uvalde, about 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio.

At least five officers have lost their jobs, including two Department of Public Safety officers and Uvalde’s school police chief, Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander during the attack.

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