Five Texas Department of Public Safety officers have been referred to the state Inspector General's Office for a formal investigation into their actions during the Uvalde school shooting, the Austin American-Statesman first reported Tuesday.
Driving the news: Two of those officers who were on site during the Robb Elementary School shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers died, have been suspended with pay, the DPS confirmed to multiple news outlets.
- Texas DPS director Steven McCraw announced last month an internal review into the conduct of the department's officers during the shooting.
- Texas DPS spokesperson Travis Considine told ABC News that review had been completed, adding the department would not publicly identify the five officers facing investigation.
The big picture: Local and state law enforcement officials in Texas have faced fierce criticism for their response to the May 24 shooting , particularly over why it took so long for officers to confront the shooter.
- A Texas House of Representatives committee's investigative report in July found "systemic failures" by authorities during the shooting. DPS personnel were among the local, state and federal law enforcement officers who didn't take sufficient action to stop the massacre, the report found.
Of note: The Texas DPS released a July email from McCraw to department staff on Tuesday outlining a new policing policy in response to the Uvalde massacre.
- "DPS Officers responding to an active shooter at a school will be authorized to overcome any delay to neutralizing an attacker," McCraw said, per CNN.
- "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.'"
- McCraw also wrote in the email, "Every agency that responded that day shares in this failure, including DPS."
