Panel looks at mass shootings, Uvalde response, how to better prepare

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The uncle of a child killed in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting shared his story at the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday. He joined others on a panel that also included the leader of a SWAT team during the Columbine school shooting 25 years ago.

The panel's goal was to have an open and honest conversation about mass shootings, and what could be done to prevent future tragedy.

'Such a big failure'

"I think that such a great state, so many resources, but such a big failure. You can't comprehend the magnitude of that," said Jesse Rizo, whose niece died in the Uvalde shooting. "Even to this day, living in Uvalde is very difficult to do. It's very challenging."

A.J. DeAndrea, a SWAT team leader present during the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, said it was clear there was no plan for what unfolded at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School.

"They had one solution, and that was to run through the door. When that started to fail, they had nothing else that they had thought about, so when you talk about standards now in the country, that's where we're at," DeAndrea said.

State Representative Joe Moody, D-El Paso, echoed his fellow panelists, and added that the failures in Uvalde happened at every level.

"This was not one thing or another. It wasn't just because the doors didn't lock properly, it wasn't just because law enforcement responded inappropriately," Moody explained.

Preparing for potential disaster

When it comes to preparing for a potential mass shooting, panelists said there is no better time than the present to get ready.

"We do know that even in their rarest capacity, they are still increasing in frequency year over year, and they have been very steadily since 1966 right down the street at UT Austin on the tower," said Jaclyn Schildkraut, a researcher with the New York-based Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium.

The lack of preparation was another key point of DeAndrea's message.

"It is insane to me that agencies are not doing regular active shooting training multiple times a year," DeAndrea said.

A small change that could potentially mean the difference between life and death.