United States

In Texas, a systems failure that allowed a gunman to kill at will

Across America, revulsion at the massacre of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in the small Texan town of Uvalde is now turning to rage and disbelief at the incompetence of the local police who stood by as it happened

Alanna De Leon writes for her friend Annabelle Rodriguez who died in the mass shooting, at a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse in Texas. Across the country, revulsion at the massacre is turning to rage. Picture: Getty

In the Texan town of Uvalde and across the United States, grief and shock have subsided into anger and bewilderment as it emerged that the initial account of last week’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School provided by police was in fact a tissue of lies: a facsimile of what should have happened, but didn’t.

What happens when dozens of good guys with guns – armed and trained law enforcement officers – cower outside a ...