US Department of Justice call Uvalde police response a failure in highly critical report

The police response to the deadly 2022 Uvalde school shooting "was a failure", the Department of Justice has said.

The long-awaited report released on Thursday said police failed to accurately assess the situation, where 19 students and two teachers died.

Hundreds of officers responded to Robb Elementary school but took over an hour to confront and kill the gunman.

The Justice Department's report, spanning more than 400 pages, lists a number of mistakes police made.

Residents in Uvalde, a small Texas town of roughly 15,000, have been anticipating the Justice Department's report since the department first made the announcement days after the 24 May shooting, one of the deadliest in US history.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland visited families in Uvalde and stopped by the murals of victims painted around town. Justice Department officials held a private meeting with the families of victims and briefed them ahead of the report's release.

Berlinda Arreola, whose granddaughter was killed in the shooting, told the Associated Press after the meeting: "I have a lot of emotions right now. I don't have a lot of words to say."

Oscar Orona, whose then-10-year-old son was shot inside one of the classrooms, told the Washington Post: "I think the report will validate what we knew all this time, that is was an abysmal failure.

"But now the world will know, too."

The review had been requested by former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin after state officials provided conflicting accounts about what happened during the roughly 77 minutes that transpired before police stopped an 18-year-old gunman from firing an AR-15 style rifle inside two fourth-grade classrooms.

Nearly 400 police were on the scene at Robb Elementary School but victims and their families say police were too slow to act.

In July 2022, a stinging report by Texas lawmakers mostly faulted law enforcement, ascribing the atrocity to "egregiously poor decision-making" by police.

The gunman had fired roughly 142 rounds inside the building before he was stopped, according to that report.

Body camera footage showed police waiting in hallways outside classrooms where the gunman had opened fire.

Bereaved families labelled police cowards while calling for their resignation.

The Texas officials' report accused police of failing to "prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety".

At least five officers have lost their jobs, including Pete Arredondo, Uvalde's former school police chief who was fired in August 2022.

Multiple community members have filed lawsuits against the city police and local officials that are pending.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell said in December that a criminal investigation into the police response will continue into 2024 before she anticipates presenting her findings to a grand jury, according to CBS News, the BBC's media partner.