Following the release of a Texas House report that offered scathing criticism of the law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting, Cheryl Dorsey, a retired Los Angeles police sergeant, joined Cheddar News to weigh in on the findings. "This was a colossal failure. It was a lack of leadership. It was ineptitude and unprofessionalism, if you will, on the part of the incident commander, Police Chief Peter Arredondo," she stated.

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Retired LAPD Sergeant Slams Police Response in Uvalde Report

a report by a texas house investigative committee on the Yuval. The school shooting was released over the weekend, blaming systematic failures and poor leadership for the tragedy. The 77 page report details how nearly 400 law enforcement officers rushed to rob elementary school in Uvalde texas on May 24th but failed to confront the gunman for more than an hour. As a result, 19 students and two teachers were killed joining me. Now to discuss is Cheryl Dorsey retired LAPD sergeant and Cheryl. The report says first responders lost critical momentum by treating the situation as a barricaded suspect scenario instead of an active shooting incident. Does this explain the lack of action on the officer's part or what does it explain? Well, listen, I mean, it's a, It's a reason, but it's nonsensical because you don't have a barricaded suspect and I don't care what they say. There was an active shooter and there were Children that were calling from within the classroom where the shooting was actually occurring, letting everyone know real time through the 911 dispatcher, what was going on? And so they understand the elected officials and certainly police Chief Pete Arredondo that civil liability is right around the corner and they're going to be very mindful of the kinds of things that they say going forward. So you've all the police release bodycam footage of officers on the scene over the weekend as well and you can hear where the officers talking to the gun and we're gonna play that clip for you. Now sir, if you can hear me, please put your gun down. We don't want anybody else hurt. Tell him in spanish in spanish. What do you think about this tactic? And is it the right 1? Well, let me be clear. That's not an officer, that's Police Chief Pete Arredondo who was the incident commander, Commander on scene and in charge of managing that police shooting or that massacre that was occurring. And so what I think about is it's embarrassing. It's nonsensical. I mean, we don't negotiate with an active shooter. There were Children in that classroom and we know this to be true. Now the Police chief didn't know it why? Because insanely he went into that active shooter scene without his police radios, radios. He's also admitted don't work in the side of his school. So why would you have him? So he was unaware of what was going on. You had other officers outside who were aware of this information, but there was no way to communicate via all the different agencies that were there on scene. And so this was a colossal failure. It was a lack of leadership. It was ineptitude and unprofessional Eliza. Um if you will on the, on the part of the incident. Commander, Police Chief Peter Arredondo and those other officers stood down indifference to the stars that he had on his shirt collar. What were so many things that could have changed during this response that you've noticed that you think may have had a different outcome. Well, the main thing is that the shooter should have been confronted. I mean, it's their policy. Police chief Peter Arredondo wrote the policy on how to deal with an active shooter and so they should have Gone in. That's that's an oath that police officers take list and I spent 20 years in patrol and I know this to be true, being hurt, injured and losing your life is inherent to police work. And so you don't get to stand down because you're fearful. You don't get to stand down because you think you might be hurt and this is what happened. So there was a failure on the part of many people. But I believe at the end of the day there will probably be very little accountability. Some of these officers will have enough time in grade, including the police chief to retire and they won't be charged. Why? Because there's a thing called qualified immunity that protects police officers when they involved in misconduct. What can be done to make sure that this kind of response does not happen again? Well, I mean, we have a report, although we didn't need this to tell us what we saw but understand this even with this report. I mean, this is a recommendation like most reports that come out from these independent civilian review boards. It's a recommendation. I hope that these various agencies will train their officers better. But at the end of the day, because there are so many police agencies involved, Every administrator, every police chief, every sheriff has complete and total autonomy with regards to how they adjudicate administrative discipline. And I believe since there was a police chief Peter Arredondo on scene that these other officers could get something as simple as retraining and, and very little will be done. That will probably sit well with these families who have lost loved ones unnecessarily. Cheryl Dorsey retired LAPD Sergeant Cheryl, thank you so much for your expertise in joining us on our show for this important topic.