RSN: Uvalde School District Suspends Entire Police Force, Superintendent to Retire Amid Fallout From Shooting
08 October 22
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Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.
Hours later, Uvalde school district Superintendent Hal Harrell announced he would be retiring. There was no timeframe given for Harrell's retirement, but the transition will be discussed in a closed session of the school board on Monday.
The district said it's requested more Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to be stationed on campuses and at extracurricular activities amid the police department suspension, adding, "We are confident that staff and student safety will not be compromised during this transition."
The length of the school district police suspension is not clear.
Lt. Miguel Hernandez, who was tasked with leading the department in the fallout from the shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers, and Ken Mueller, the UCISD's director of student services, were placed on administrative leave.
Hernandez acknowledged in a law enforcement communication in August that he'd received formal notification from DPS that an officer applying to Uvalde's school police force was under investigation for her response at Robb Elementary.
Mueller has elected to retire, according to the school district.
"Officers currently employed will fill other roles in the district," the school district said. According to the district's website, that includes four officers and one security guard.
Victims' families, led by Brett Cross, guardian of 10-year-old victim Uziyah Garcia, had been holding a round-the-clock vigil outside the school district headquarters calling for change. The families are now commending Friday's police department announcement.
"We've gotten a little bit of accountability," an emotional Cross told ABC News. "So, it's a win, and we don't get very many of those."
Kimberly Rubio, whose daughter, Lexi, was killed at Robb, said the department suspension was "what we've been asking for -- it's more than we've been asking for."
"They don't know how to hire people, they don't know how to vet officers," she told ABC News. "They haven't provided proper training."
Gloria Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter, Jackie, was killed, called the department suspension "bittersweet."
"It's a win -- a small win," she told ABC News. "We're not done."
Berlinda Arreola, the grandmother of victim Amerie Jo Garza, added, "This is the perfect example of why we didn't stop."
"We are going to continue because there are other children that still go to school here. We have a lot of siblings of the deceased that go here," she said. "We want to make sure our kids are secure and protected. And we want to make sure that the people protecting them are willing to protect them."
The department suspension comes one day after the firing of Crimson Elizondo, the officer who was hired by Uvalde's school district despite being under investigation for her conduct as a DPS trooper during the massacre.
Elizondo was the first DPS member to enter the hallway at Robb after the shooter gained entry. The trooper did not bring her rifle or vest into the school, according to the results of an internal review by DPS that was detailed to ABC News.
As a result of potential failure to follow standard procedures, the trooper was among seven DPS personnel whose conduct is now being investigated by the agency's inspector general. The seven were suspended, however, by Elizondo resigning from DPS to work for the Uvalde schools she was no longer subject to any internal discipline or penalties. Her conduct -- if found to be in violation of law or policy -- would still be included in the final report from the DPS inspector general.
The school district said in Friday's statement that "decisions concerning" the school district police department have been pending results of investigations from the Texas Police Chiefs Association and the private investigative firm JPPI Investigations, but "recent developments have uncovered additional concerns with department operations."
Results of the JPPI investigation "will inform future personnel decisions" and the Texas Police Chiefs Association's review "will guide the rebuilding of the department and the hiring of a new Chief of Police," the statement said.
The school district's police chief, Pete Arredondo, was fired in August.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of forcibly deporting 1.6 million Ukrainians with efforts under way to return 32 illegally adopted kids who were found.
“We know the identities of the kidnapped children and will demand that Russia brings them back,” said Iryna Vereshchuk of the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.
“As of today work is being done to return 32 children who are currently on the territory of the Russian Federation, but have parents in Ukraine who want to have their children back,” news agency Interfax-Ukraine quoted her as saying.
At least 7,343 children have been deported to Russia and another 236 are still missing since the start of its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, said Ukraine’s Office of the Ombudsman last month.
Ukrainian social services located 5,391 children and returned 55 home, it said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged on Thursday that Russia has forcibly deported more than 1.6 million Ukrainians.
“Many of them … were abused and intimidated. These are people, but for Russia, it is also a resource,” said Zelenskyy.
In September, the United Nations said there were credible accusations that Russian forces have sent Ukrainian children to Russia for adoption as part of a large-scale forced relocation and deportation programme.
The Russian ambassador to the UN has said the kidnapping allegations were “a new milestone in the disinformation campaign by Western nations”.
Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said last month more than 3.7 million Ukrainians, including 600,000 children, have gone to Russia or Russian-controlled separatist areas in eastern Ukraine, but they “aren’t being kept in prisons”.
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Donald Trump, search warrant photo montage. (image: The New Yorker)
The former president exhibited a pattern of dissembling about the material he took from the White House, creating legal risk not just for himself but also some of his lawyers.
Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims.
In exchange for those documents, Mr. Trump told advisers, he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mr. Trump’s aides never pursued the idea. But the episode is one in a series that demonstrates how Mr. Trump spent a year and a half deflecting, delaying and sometimes leading aides to dissemble when it came to demands from the National Archives and ultimately the Justice Department to return the material he had taken, interviews and documents show.
That pattern was strikingly similar to how Mr. Trump confronted inquiries into his conduct while in office: entertain or promote outlandish ideas, eschew the advice of lawyers and mislead them, then push lawyers and aides to impede investigators.
In the process, some of his lawyers have increased their own legal exposure and had to hire lawyers themselves. And Mr. Trump has ended up in the middle of an investigation into his handling of the documents that has led the Justice Department to seek evidence of obstruction.
The path began well before Mr. Trump left office.
Concern about Mr. Trump’s habit of bringing documents to his White House bedroom began not long after he took office. By the second year of his administration, tracking the material he had in the residence had become a familiar obstacle, according to people familiar with his practices, and by the third year, there were specific documents that West Wing officials knew were not where they should be.
In the closing weeks of his presidency, the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, flagged the need for Mr. Trump to return documents that had piled up in boxes in the White House residence, according to archives officials.
“It is also our understanding that roughly two dozen boxes of original presidential records were kept in the residence of the White House over the course of President Trump’s last year in office and have not been transferred to NARA, despite a determination by Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration that they need to be,” Gary M. Stern, the top lawyer for the National Archives, told Mr. Trump’s representatives in a 2021 letter, using an abbreviation for the agency’s name.
Mr. Stern added that he had raised his concerns about the issue with another top White House lawyer in the final weeks of the administration.
Mr. Stern acknowledged to Mr. Trump’s representatives the complications that had come with the abrupt end of Mr. Trump’s term. “We know things were very chaotic, as they always are in the course of a one-term transition,” he wrote. “This is why the transfer of the Trump electronic records is still ongoing and won’t be complete for several more months. But it is absolutely necessary that we obtain and account for all original presidential records.”
Throughout 2021, Mr. Stern doggedly pressed Mr. Trump’s representatives to have him hand over the boxes.
Mr. Stern went back and forth about the issue with the people Mr. Trump had originally designated to represent him in dealing with the archives — among them Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, and three lawyers who had worked in the White House Counsel’s Office.
In September 2021, as Mr. Stern increased the pressure on Mr. Trump to return the boxes, Mr. Trump told Mr. Meadows that there were about a dozen boxes that had been taken from the White House but that they only contained newspaper clippings and personal effects, according to three people briefed on the matter. (To some aides, Mr. Trump claimed that the contents of the boxes included dirty laundry.)
Mr. Meadows shared Mr. Trump’s characterization of the contents of the boxes with Patrick Philbin, another of Mr. Trump’s representatives to the archives and a former White House lawyer. Mr. Philbin in turn relayed the message — which months later would prove to be false — to Mr. Stern.
But archives officials made clear that even newspaper clippings and printouts of articles seen by Mr. Trump in office were considered presidential records. The archives often found personal effects among the materials presidents turned in, and the archives would send them back to Mr. Trump if they ever found any.
Still, Mr. Trump returned no boxes.
By the fall, Mr. Stern was growing increasingly frustrated and dealing with Alex Cannon, a lawyer who had worked for the Trump Organization, the 2020 campaign and then Mr. Trump’s political action committee. Mr. Cannon had also been involved in responding to requests for documents from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
In a conversation in late October or early November of last year, Mr. Stern told Mr. Cannon that he had tried other avenues for retrieving the documents and failed. He acknowledged that the Presidential Records Act did not contain an enforcement mechanism but suggested that the archives had options, including the ability to ask the attorney general to assist in retrieving the documents, according to people briefed on the discussions.
Mr. Cannon told Mr. Stern that the documents would be returned by the end of the year, the people said.
Around that time, Mr. Cannon, who told others he worried the boxes might contain documents that were being sought in the Jan. 6 inquiry, called Mr. Trump, who insisted that the boxes contained nothing of consequence.
Nonetheless, Mr. Cannon told associates that the boxes needed to be shipped back as they were, so the professional archivists could be the ones to sift through the material and set aside what they believed belonged to Mr. Trump. What is more, Mr. Cannon believed there was the possibility that the boxes could contain classified material, according to two people briefed on the discussions, and none of the staff members in Mr. Trump’s presidential office at Mar-a-Lago had proper security clearances.
It was around that same time that Mr. Trump floated the idea of offering the deal to return the boxes in exchange for documents he believed would expose the Russia investigation as a “hoax” cooked up by the F.B.I. Mr. Trump did not appear to know specifically what he thought the archives had — only that there were items he wanted.
Mr. Trump’s aides — recognizing that such a swap would be a non-starter since the government had a clear right to the material Mr. Trump had taken from the White House and the Russia-related documents held by the archives remained marked as classified — never acted on the idea.
A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for the archives did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Cannon declined a request for comment.
By the end of last year, a former adviser to Mr. Trump in the White House, a lawyer named Eric Herschmann, warned him that he could face serious legal ramifications if he did not return government materials he had taken with him when he left office. Mr. Herschmann told Mr. Trump that the consequences could be greater if some of the documents were classified.
Finally, after telling advisers repeatedly that the boxes were “mine,” Mr. Trump consented to go through them, which his associates said he did in December. Mr. Stern was alerted that the boxes were ready for retrieval.
But neither Mr. Trump nor any of his representatives informed Mr. Stern that they contained classified information. In January, the agency arranged for a contractor with a truck to go to Mar-a-Lago to pick up the boxes — which totaled 15, three more than the agency thought Mr. Trump had taken from the White House — and drive them to the Washington area.
Not knowing that the boxes contained classified information, agency personnel began opening the boxes in a room that did not meet government standards for handling secret materials. When they realized the sensitivity of the material, they quickly moved the boxes to specially secured areas, where their contents could be more closely examined.
Shortly thereafter, the National Archives alerted the Justice Department that classified materials may have been mishandled, leading federal authorities to open an investigation.
Around the time the archives retrieved the boxes, officials at the archives became skeptical that Mr. Trump had returned everything and made clear they believed there was more in his possession.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Cannon last winter to tell the archivists that he had returned everything. Mr. Cannon, concerned about making such a definitive statement to federal officials, refused to do so.
Their relationship ultimately became strained over the issue. Mr. Trump has told several advisers that he blames Mr. Cannon for the entire situation because the lawyer told him to give records back, while informal advisers like Tom Fitton, who runs the conservative group Judicial Watch but is not a lawyer, suggested Mr. Trump could claim the documents were personal records and hang on to them.
By the spring, a grand jury investigation had begun, and by June, the Justice Department was moving full steam ahead with the investigation, having issued a subpoena for any remaining classified material.
In a face-to-face meeting at Mar-a-Lago on June 3 between one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran, and a top Justice Department official overseeing the investigation, Jay I. Bratt, the lawyer returned another set of documents in response to the subpoena.
Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, then signed a statement on behalf of Mr. Trump saying that “based upon the information that has been provided to me,” all documents responsive to the subpoena were being returned after a “diligent” search.
Yet two months later, during the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, the F.B.I. found more than twice as many documents marked as classified as had been turned over in June, including some in Mr. Trump’s office. The F.B.I. also found dozens of empty folders marked as having contained classified information. Among the crimes that the search warrant said the authorities might find evidence of was obstruction.
Ms. Bobb has hired a criminal defense lawyer and signaled a willingness to answer questions from the Justice Department.
In the aftermath of the search, investigators remained skeptical that they had retrieved all the documents and, in recent weeks, a top Justice Department official told Mr. Trump’s lawyers that the department believed he had still not returned all the documents he took when he left the White House, according to people familiar with the discussions.
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Chris Smalls, a leader of the Amazon Labor Union, leads a march of Amazon workers and their allies to the homes of their CEOs to protest union busting in New York City. (photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Getty Images)
"It's just point-blank an unsafe work environment," JFK8 warehouse employee Leo Shockey told CBS New York after the blaze. He and other employees said the fire left the warehouse too filled with smoke to work safely.
In a statement posted to its Twitter page, JFK8's Amazon Labor Union — a grassroots group of former and current workers still battling Amazon's management for formal recognition as a union — said management had suspended "over 50 workers who were involved in last night's walkout."
The union called it "clear retaliation" for the action.
"Amazon workers made a collective decision last night to demand that workers get sent home while the smoke cleared," the Amazon Labor Union said, adding that it had also demanded to see a report by the New York Fire Department, which responded to extinguish the fire.
The blaze started when a compactor caught fire by a loading dock on Monday afternoon, not long before a shift changeover. Employee Tristian Martinez, who's shift was ending, shot video and told CBS New York he and other members of the day shift were told they could go home at about 5:15 p.m.
When night shift employees started to arrive not long after, they said Amazon managers didn't tell them about the fire, which caused no injuries.
"There was no message from Amazon whatsoever, so all of us just came to work in an unsafe environment not being told anything," employee Brett Daniels said.
Employees claim smoke still lingered inside the facility.
"It started making me feel congested. My head was hurting. It was definitely a lot," Shockey told CBS New York.
"They didn't show us proof it was safe to work there. They just told us just to work right through it," added Eli Andino.
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson told CBS New York that the fire department had "certified the building is safe and at that point we asked all night shift employees to report to their regularly scheduled shift."
Fire officials told CBS New York, however, that while the FDNY had responded to a fire outside the building, it wasn't clear whether the attending team had inspected conditions inside the facility.
"I don't think it's right that I got paid to leave when it's no more unsafe for them than it was for me," early shift worker Martinez told CBS New York. "It's just because they're losing more money by them missing a 10-hour shift than by me going home two hours early."
The ordeal comes just a few months after workers at the Staten Island warehouse became the first Amazon employee collective to vote to unionize. Amazon appealed the results of that vote, claiming the election was tainted by the local National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office.
Just weeks ago, in a major victory for the employees' unionization bid, Amazon's management lost a legal challenge with the NRLB to have the results of that vote thrown out, but the Amazon Labor Union still faces a potentially long battle for recognition by America's second-largest employer.
"We were getting first hand reports of both smoke and water flowing in response to the fire itself," the Amazon Labor Union group said in its early Wednesday morning statement. "When workers demanded the right to speak together as a union, Amazon then increased their intimidation by informing us that key worker leaders have now been suspended for doing exactly what workers voted for, coming together to make a plan that we as frontline workers felt safe on the job. We will not tolerate any unsafe workplace and we will not tolerate intimidation."
The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, said the online retailer had confirmed the employee suspensions at the JFK8 facility. The newspaper quoted Amazon spokesman Paul Flanigan as saying that while the company respects its workers' right to protest, it wasn't appropriate for staff to occupy workspaces while they were in use, referring to the employees' march through the warehouse.
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Bernie Sanders. (photo: Antonella Crescimbeni)
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