By Shimon Prokupecz, Matthew J. Friedman and Rachel Clarke | CNN
Following this CNN report, Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District (UCISD) on Thursday issued an announcement asserting the officer’s termination efficient at this time.
“We're deeply distressed by the knowledge that was disclosed yesterday night regarding one in every of our not too long ago employed staff, Crimson Elizondo. We sincerely apologize to the sufferer’s households and the higher Uvalde group for the ache that this revelation has precipitated. Ms. Elizondo’s assertion within the audio will not be according to the District’s expectations,” the assertion kind the district mentioned.
UCISD didn't specify what data they had been referencing.
The district mentioned former DPS officer Crimson Elizondo has been terminated from her place with the Uvalde CISD efficient October 6.
“Concerning the remaining UCISD Police Division staff, we proceed to make personnel choices primarily based on verifiable data. An impartial investigation is underway to judge the actions of the present officers on Might 24, 2022. Moreover, we're awaiting outcomes of a administration and organizational evaluate of the UCISD Police Division that can assist the district in taking knowledgeable actions to additional guarantee the security and safety of our faculties,” the assertion added.
[Previously published story, 11:50 a.m. ET]
The Texas state trooper arrived at Robb Elementary inside two minutes of a gunman getting into the varsity and beginning his bloodbath final Might.
Crimson Elizondo is seen in her Texas Division of Public Security (DPS) uniform, handgun drawn, outdoors the varsity constructing in Uvalde, after which briefly within the hallway on the physique digicam footage from one other legislation enforcement officer.
She was one of many first of the 91 DPS officers to reach, one of many 376 complete legislation enforcement personnel who went to the varsity the place the shooter was left for 77 minutes — with lifeless, dying and traumatized victims — earlier than he was stopped.
The response to the assault by which 19 youngsters and two academics had been killed has been denounced as an “abject failure” with sufficient blame to be unfold extensively.
The college police chief was fired and now seven DPS officers are being investigated for what they did — or didn't — do.
CNN has uncovered completely that Elizondo is a type of officers. A supply near the investigation additionally confirmed that to CNN.
She now not works for DPS. Through the summer time she left and bought a brand new job.
Now, she is a police officer for the Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District (CISD), the place her position is to guard a few of the exact same youngsters who survived the Robb Elementary capturing.
Elizondo declined to talk with CNN in individual, on the cellphone or by direct message.
Mother and father acknowledged her
Uvalde CISD has mentioned it wished to recruit 10 extra officers after the Might 24 assault. It didn't particularly announce the hiring of Elizondo over the summer time, although the names and photographs of her and 4 different cops, one lieutenant and one safety guard are on its web site, underneath the banner “KEEP U.C.I.S.D. SAFE.”
Superintendent Hal Harrell informed a particular city corridor assembly in August that no less than 33 DPS officers would even be deployed across the district’s eight faculties. After preliminary concern by residents that officers who didn't cease the killing could be tasked with college safety, mum or dad Brett Cross informed CNN he had been assured the deployed DPS officers wouldn't have been responders to the capturing.
In her new place, that restriction doesn't apply to Elizondo. Kids and oldsters walked previous her as they headed into the varsity yr at Uvalde Elementary, the brand new residence for the youthful college students who survived the Robb bloodshed.
And a few mother and father, together with those that misplaced youngsters within the bloodbath, acknowledged her from the physique digicam footage launched by the mayor, members of the family informed CNN.
“We're disgusted and offended at Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District’s (UCISD) determination to rent Officer Crimson Elizondo. Her hiring places into query the credibility and thoroughness of UCISD’s HR and vetting practices,” in accordance with an announcement from household representatives.
It made them really feel uneasy, CNN has realized, one more reminder of the lethal day in a city that is filled with such reminders.
However they didn't know that she was underneath investigation.
It’s additionally unclear if the varsity district knew of the investigation when she was employed.
The assertion from household representatives requires all division officers to be suspended pending a third-party investigation, and its outcomes “should be launched” to the general public in addition to households of the victims.
“Our youngsters have been taken from us. We won't cease preventing till we've got solutions and we guarantee the security of the youngsters in our group is the highest precedence,” the assertion mentioned.
Cross, the authorized guardian of Uziyah Garcia, one of many youngsters killed at Robb Elementary, says he's “disgusted” by what the district has accomplished.
“I’m completely appalled,” he informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper and says the varsity board met with him and provided to drag such officers to off-campus roles. He says he'll proceed to carry a vigil outdoors the varsity board places of work till all officers are suspended.
The district and its workers haven't responded to emails and calls and a private strategy from CNN about this story.
Secret scrutiny
Texas DPS, the state physique that helps native legislation enforcement in main incidents, introduced an inner evaluate into its staff who responded to Robb.
Sources acquainted with the investigation confirmed to CNN that Elizondo is one in every of seven officers whose conduct is being investigated by DPS, however neither their names nor their actions or inactions have been made public.
In a redacted inner memo to the group’s director obtained by CNN, DPS cited “actions which can be inconsistent with coaching and necessities” as the explanation for the officers being referred for investigation.
Sources acquainted with the inquiry informed CNN that Elizondo was not correctly outfitted and mentioned to investigators that she was not snug going inside the varsity with out her gear.
Footage from police physique cameras and people of different officers seen by CNN present Elizondo arriving on the outskirts of the varsity as one of many first officers to reply to the report of an armed man at Robb Elementary.
She will get out of her official car however doesn't retrieve any tactical physique armor or her lengthy rifle, as officers are educated to do.
She doesn't strategy the varsity however stays with officers from different companies outdoors the fence till a name comes over the radio, “Pictures fired contained in the constructing!”
Elizondo runs with different officers to the japanese finish of the constructing that housed connecting lecture rooms 111 and 112. Quickly after, the responding officers are informed that the shooter is contained in a room on the west aspect.
After that, there performs out on the recordings the multiple hour of confusion and delay earlier than anybody goes to assist the trapped workers and college students in rooms 111 and 112, the catalog of errors that has turn out to be a part of the Uvalde tragedy.
Elizondo walked contained in the constructing briefly however principally stood outdoors.
As officers ready for what turned the ultimate breach, she provided to assist a colleague and went to assemble provides for him. She was away from the varsity when the gunman was shot and killed.
Inside moments, the physique digicam recordings present, the hallway the place so many had stood turned a scene of carnage as officers bought college students out of the school rooms and assessed their accidents.
Elizondo was quickly there, urging college students to “go, go, go” in the event that they had been ready, and never to have a look at their accidents or the blood on the ground. She comforted one boy as an officer checked his wounds, telling him again and again that she was there with him, that he could be OK and that his mother and father would quickly be informed.
The footage confirmed she traveled to the hospital in a college bus with college students who had been shot and traumatized, once more serving to to care for them.
DPS director Col. Steven McCraw mentioned in August: “Each one in every of our officers will endure scrutiny by the DA and an inner investigation — simply because they didn’t violate the legislation, doesn’t imply they acted appropriately primarily based on our coverage.”
Two weeks later official notes of a gathering confirmed McCraw telling captains, “Nobody is dropping their jobs.” McCraw informed CNN he had been misquoted within the minutes and vowed “nobody will get a move.”
He mentioned he would launch all the knowledge when he may, however the native district lawyer has requested him not to take action till the legal investigations are accomplished, a course of he has acknowledged may take years.
Prosecutor Christina Mitchell Busbee will cost anybody who has dedicated against the law at Robb Elementary, together with legislation enforcement officers, she’s mentioned.
CNN reached out to the Division of Public Security, which declined to remark for this story.
A coalition of reports organizations together with CNN is suing the DPS for data regarding the investigation which were withheld from the media and public.
To date, the one individual recognized to have misplaced their job over the response to the capturing has been college police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who was fired by the varsity board in August. Arredondo turned the figurehead of the failed response, although he has mentioned he didn't take into account himself the incident commander and has referred to as to be reinstated.
A chilling evaluation
Elizondo earned a base wage of $59,715 at DPS, in accordance with a database compiled by The Texas Tribune, reflecting a 12% elevate a yr in the past. She joined the division in 2018.
Her new wage will not be recognized, however a job posting for the same position has a decrease wage vary, from $41,584 to $59,158.
That posting lists psychological and bodily calls for of the place, together with an “Capacity to successfully take care of private hazard which can embrace sudden publicity to armed individuals … underneath intense threatening situations.”
On Might 24, as she rode the varsity bus again to Robb Elementary from the hospital, she informed one other officer: “Nothing may put together you for what they introduced out. It was horrible.”
Later, she might be heard on physique digicam footage speaking to fellow officers when somebody asks if she had youngsters on the college that day.
The lady who now wears a college police uniform gave a blunt response.
In her DPS uniform, stained with blood, she mentioned: “If my son had been in there, I'd not have been outdoors. I promise you that.”