DALLAS — The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District announced Friday that it is suspending all activities of its Police Department, a move that comes a day after the district fired an officer who — then working as a state trooper — had been one of the first Department of Public Safety officers to respond to the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School.
The district said in a news release that “recent developments have uncovered additional concerns” with the department’s operations. For the time being, the district has asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide additional troopers for campus security and at extracurricular activities.
Hours after the announcement, Uvalde CISD Superintendent Hal Harrell announced his intention to retire, according to an email to staff posted online. The transition will be discussed in a closed school board meeting Monday, but no other information about the timeline was immediately available.
The news comes after mounting pressure from families of the victims by way of a protest largely led by Brett Cross, legal guardian of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, one of the children killed in the shooting.
Cross started the protest Sept. 27 to demand more transparency and accountability from school and law enforcement officials, with the end goal being the district’s police department under suspension pending a third-party investigation.
Cross stayed on school grounds around the clock, often using a projector to play videos of the children on the building, and sleeping on a cot near the employee entrance used by the superintendent and other school authorities.
Cross, who has been documenting his efforts on Twitter, announced Friday the stakeout was over after 245 hours. ”We did it!,” Cross wrote Friday afternoon. “And we are going home!”
Uvalde CISD police Lt. Miguel Hernandez and Ken Mueller, the district’s director of student services, were placed on administrative leave, the district said, adding that Mueller had decided to retire.
On Thursday, the district said it had fired Officer Crimson Elizondo. CNN reported a day earlier that Elizondo was one of seven troopers under investigation for their response to the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Elizondo resigned from DPS but was hired as an officer for the district. CNN reported that Uvalde CISD had been alerted by DPS in July that Elizondo was being investigated over her actions.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents Uvalde, said the hiring came after parents were assured by the district that no officers involved in the response to the May shooting would be deployed to Uvalde Elementary School, where many Robb Elementary students now attend.
Body-camera footage from the day of the massacre shows Elizondo telling someone, “If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside.”
CNN reported that Elizondo — one of 91 DPS officers to respond to the shooting — arrived at the school within two minutes of initial reports of a gunman on campus.
Families of the victims, along with Gutierrez, have called for the resignation of DPS Director Steven McCraw.
Uvalde CISD said Friday that officers employed by the district would be reassigned to other jobs, and that the district is continuing to work with the Texas Police Chiefs Association on a review of its police force, which will help guide a rebuilding of the department. The report is expected to be issued this month.
“We are confident that staff and student safety will not be compromised during this transition,” the district said.
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