NPR

A year after Uvalde's school massacre, healing remains elusive

There are still many unresolved questions about the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. As they grasp for answers, surviving families and the broader community feel suspended in grief.
The memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. A mass shooting there on May 24, 2022, killed 19 children and two teachers. For surviving families, the year since has been an agonizing fight for answers and accountability.

In the year since 19 children and two teachers were killed inside their classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the search for healing has been elusive.

Many victims' relatives have said healing cannot begin without closure. But closure has been impossible, because 12 months later there are still many unresolved questions about what happened that day — most stemming from the failed police response. It took officers an agonizing 77 minutes to enter the classroom and kill the gunman. It was more than an hour during which some of the victims slowly bled to death.

Details about precisely what happened, which victims might have survived if police had acted faster, and why the law enforcement response failed so miserably are the subject of ongoing local, state and federal investigations. Many surviving families are pinning their hopes for closure on their findings. Others are skeptical. But in the meantime,

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