The report cites poor communication and leadership in the police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

A U.S. Department of Justice report says police failed in their response to the 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers.

The report cited “serious lapses” and accused police officers of waiting more than an hour to enter the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman was hiding with students and staff, leaving the children inside to in a panic to call 911.

“The victims and survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School deserve better,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday.

“The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022 – and the officers’ response in the hours and days thereafter – was a failure.”

The report released Thursday, the most comprehensive federal report on the police response to the shooting, identifies a variety of problems, from a lack of communication and leadership to inadequate technology and training, that federal officials say contributed to the crisis lasting far longer than it should have been.

The report concluded that officers should have immediately broken into a classroom to stop the shooting. Instead, they treated the shooter like a barricaded subject and allowed him to remain in a classroom with the victims for more than an hour.

The report details the findings of the department’s “Critical Incident Review” of law enforcement response, a review that began days after the shooting at the request of Uvalde’s mayor.

The police response to the massacre came under intense criticism after reports that police waited in a hallway for more than an hour while the gunman remained holed up in a classroom and panicked students called 911.

A tactical team led by the US Border Patrol eventually burst into the classroom and killed the shooter.

A July 2022 report from Texas lawmakers described an “atmosphere of chaos” at the crime scene and concluded that law enforcement “did not put saving the lives of innocent victims above their own safety.”

The goal of the Justice Department’s review is to provide an independent analysis and draw lessons for authorities’ response to other mass shootings.

The department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services led the assessment with the help of outside experts in emergency management, active shooter response and school safety.

Uvalde, a community of more than 15,000 residents, continues to grapple with the trauma left by the killing of 21 people – mostly elementary school students – and remains divided over the question of accountability for officers’ actions and inactions.

Uvalde School District officers arrived at the school within three minutes of the shooter’s arrival and ran toward the classroom, but as they approached, the shooter fired from the classroom. Two officers were hit by shrapnel and police retreated for cover.

“An active shooter with access to victims should never be viewed and treated as a barricaded subject,” the report states, with the word “never” highlighted in italics.

In the 20 months since the Justice Department announced its review, footage showing police officers waiting in a hallway outside fourth-grade classrooms where the gunman opened fire has become the target of national criticism.