Texas State Trooper Being Investigated For Failures During Uvalde Shooting Got Hired By the School District (UPDATE: Officer Has Been Fired)

One of the Texas state troopers who is a target of the investigation into the many egregious failures during the Uvalde school shooting was recently hired by the very school district she’s accused of failing to protect. The families are understandably furious — especially in light of appalling comments from the trooper captured by bodycam on the day of the shooting.

Outrage grew in the wake of the May 24, 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead, as news reporting and surveillance footage showed as many as 400 police officers were at the school but failed to intervene for a shocking 77-minute period, leaving dead, dying, and grievously injured children in the room with the shooter.

According to a report by CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz, a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) named Crimson Elizondo arrived at the Robb campus “within two minutes” of when the gunman began shooting.

Video footage from that day, including from other officers’ body cameras, shows her as

she gets out of her DPS vehicle “but does not retrieve any tactical body armor or her long rifle, as officers are trained to do,” then outside the school with her handgun drawn, and again in the school hallway.

So far, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) Police Chief Pete Arredondo is the only officer to lose his job for the response to the shooting. Seven DPS officers are being investigated for their actions — or failure to act — on May 24, and CNN confirmed that Elizondo was one of those seven.

Elizondo “no longer works for DPS,” wrote Prokupecz, because “[d]uring the summer she left and got a new job” with the Uvalde CISD, “where her role is to protect some of the very same children who survived the Robb Elementary shooting.”

The school district had announced they were hiring additional officers for the new school year, but parents — including some whose children were killed in the shooting —

were “disgusted and angry” to find out that one of those new officers was Elizondo. And that was before they found out that she was individually being investigated.

“Her hiring puts into question the credibility and thoroughness of UCISD’s HR and vetting practices,” said a statement from family representatives demanding a suspension of Elizondo until a third-party investigation can be completed. “Our children have been taken from us. We will not stop fighting until we have answers and we ensure the safety of the children in our community is the top priority.”

The Uvalde CISD and Elizondo did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Video from the aftermath of the shooting showed Elizondo helping students evacuate the gruesome scene after the shooting and comforting children on the bus to the hospital, and telling another officer it had been “horrible” and “nothing could prepare you for what they brought out.”

The CNN article ends with a quote that illustrates the frustration and pain felt by the grieving Uvalde families, with Elizondo herself voicing how she would have gone into the school if her own child had been inside:

Later, she can be heard on body camera footage talking to fellow officers when someone asks if she had children at the school that day.The woman who now wears a school police uniform gave a blunt response.In her DPS uniform, stained with blood, she said: “If my son

had been in there, I would not have been outside. I promise you that.”

UPDATE 2:00 pm ET: Prokupecz is reporting that Elizondo has been fired by the Uvalde CISD. He also added that the school had been informed by Texas DPS “as early as July 28” that she was under investigation.

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