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Uvalde Report Outlines "Multiple Failures" By Several Entities; January 6 Committee Expects To Receive Secret Service Texts By Tuesday; FDA, U.S. Health Department Discussing Second COVID Booster As Cases Surge. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired July 17, 2022 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:00:32]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin this hour with breaking news this Sunday.

Multiple failures -- that is what CNN is learning from the preliminary report by the Texas House Investigative Committee looking into the massacre at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 19 children and two teachers were killed that day. This nearly two months after the horrific mass shooting took place.

Investigators are now also showing the family members the heartbreaking hallway surveillance video of the school shooting, which this surveillance video was leaked to a Texas newspaper and then published earlier in the week last week.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz and Rosa Flores joining us now from Uvalde, Texas.

Shimon, you first, you actually have obtained a copy of this report. Tell us what you can thus far.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right off the top it's very clear that this committee found -- and I think this is significant -- that the blame as to what happened here in terms of the lack of law enforcement response, disorganized response, at one point quoting it as chaotic, the blame rests on almost every law enforcement agency responded to the scene.

You know, we've heard a lot from state officials essentially blaming everything on one person, saying that it was the school chief who was the incident commander and that this was the individual making all the decisions.

While this report does not find that to necessarily be the case, they say that there was just no leadership on site during the shooting. They say that there was a lackadaisical approach by authorities.

They say that there were shortcomings and failures of the school. They're also putting some of the blame on the school, and I'll get into that in just a minute. They also talk a lot obviously about the different law enforcement agencies that are responding.

And in total, there were probably over 300, perhaps close to 400 law enforcement officials on scene by the end of the shooting. And what we learned is that there were 149 border patrol agents. That is a significant number. 91 state troopers, those are the Department of Public Safety, the Texas state troopers. And then 25 Uvalde police officers. And there were U.S. marshals on scene and DEA agents on scene. So there were a lot of law enforcement agents and officials on scene.

And what they're saying is in this report is that there were systemic failures and ultimately poor decision-making.

And then obviously they blamed some of it on the school, the security, that the doors weren't properly locked, that some of the shooting, active shooting protocols were not followed. Then they also talk about that there were training deficiency, chaos. There was no leader on scene. There was no incident command, someone to tell people where to go, what to do.

What we're finding is that whatever was going on inside the school and what was going on outside the school pretty much varied. There was no -- they were not unified in their response to the shooting. And that is what the report is finding.

The other thing is that they found that there was a delay in some of the response by the police because there was a delay in reporting. They're blaming it on poor cell service and Wi-Fi. There were some issues getting word out there was an active shooter, that the police needed to come faster. So they're blaming some of that.

And one other thing that I want to point out having spent some time now in this community, the report talks about bailouts, and what they mean is that there has been, they say, some 50 cases through this town in the beginning of the year here between February and May.

There were about 50 chases, border patrol agents, other law enforcement officials chasing human traffickers, people who are bringing people over from the border. And they say that as a result of those cases and those bailouts that it sort of created this environment, this lackadaisical environment at the school that perhaps could have led to the school not going into lockdown sooner, perhaps the school not taking what was going on more serious.

[14:04:50]

PROKUPECZ: And we've heard these complaints from people in the community saying that officials here, law enforcement often would do these chases through the streets and the chaos and the concern that it was causing.

So there is really a lot here in this 77-page report. Of course, family members are now getting the chance to review this and ask questions here later today. It's going to be a particularly difficult day for them as they hear some of this information. We're expected to hear from officials later today, and I can tell you there's a lot more to come certainly about the training that perhaps the police department here is going to need to make changes to and other concerns regarding the Uvalde police department and also some changes at the school, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So I wonder, Shimon, many of the things you just mentioned, I guess, had already been highlighted in terms of there was a lack of leadership, a lack of direction, lack of communication. Perhaps now this is the first time we're hearing some blame being placed on this on the school for not having proper lockdown procedures.

But while much of this is very illuminating, is there anything in this report or does the report also serve as -- while much of the blame should be shared across many agencies, is there really any specification on, I guess, when was the first card to fall? I mean where was the first collapse. And where is that blame placed on the first collapse of helping to respond to try to preserve life. And obviously it didn't happen to a significant level.

PROKUPECZ: Right. So I think the initial response, right, you're going to have officers who really in their initial response did not advance properly, did not contain the situation. They really didn't. You have officers who were not communicating together.

One of the things that this report highlights is that you need command and control, right? Someone needs to be the leader in a situation like this. And that just didn't exist.

I mean you had well-trained officers, agents from the border patrol. Some of the best trained agents. You had state troopers here from the Department of Public Safety who were here, who are well trained, more perhaps you could say experienced. They should have known better. More experienced officers from other agencies on scene.

The point is that someone needed to take control. And instead what you had here was complete chaos, officers kind of running their own operation, officers not communicating with supervisors, not really understanding what was going on inside versus what was going on outside, not understanding exactly the situation, really not understanding exactly if students were in the classroom.

So that's what it's touching on. And of course, part of this whole thing is also school security and how that needs to be improved, and all of that goes to the fact that you need to have systems in place obviously to prevent this, but also something, you know, sadly, we're living in a world where this is happening more frequently and schools need to be better prepared and certainly police departments. And you need to be able to slow the threat down, eliminate the threat faster.

And that is kind of where we look at when the school and the issues surrounding the school and security of the school, that's where some of that comes in.

And the training that officers in this situation probably did not have the best training. You know, they specifically talk about training deficiency. And really, when you look at the video from inside the school that was

released, you see the chaos. You see what was going on in there and how no one really understood the situation, really took control of the situation, really moved toward eliminating the gunfire. There were 911 calls from students inside, and no one kind of did anything about it.

It's striking because, you know, the fact that they're talking about this lackadaisical approach by authorities, you have a mass shooting inside a school, children have been hurt, some of them bleeding out, and the police officers, law enforcement officials are just standing around. And that's kind of what the report says.

WHITFIELD: And of all those members, Shimon -- you say 25, you know, Uvalde police officers, 149 border patrol representatives, 91 state troopers and then there are also the number of, you know, DEA agents, you mentioned some other agency representatives. But in all of that, so this report does it say when you have a collaboration of all these law enforcement agencies, who is supposed to be in charge? Where are the gaps as to why there wasn't a leadership role when you have all these entities involved? What is supposed to happen? Who was supposed to give a directive? Does the report touch on that?

[14:09:40]

PROKUPECZ: Right. Normally in these situations you would have a chief, right. Or you have -- look, you know, in active shooter situations, the first officer on the scene should take command and control and make decisions because that officer needs to move toward the gunfire and has to relay where they're going, what they're doing. That's the job of that first officer.

And so there was a complete breakdown in that. And usually what happens in these situations is it could be anyone really. But there really just was no one here.

There was -- you know, there was the chief, the school chief. There was another senior official here, another law enforcement official who's a lieutenant from the Uvalde police department. He was the acting chief of that day because the police chief of the Uvalde police department was on vacation. So he was in an acting role.

So they had the senior leadership there. The people who had the title, the people who were supposed to make the decisions, but they just didn't. And when you look at the video, again from inside the school, you see that.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: The other problem here, I will tell you, Fredricka, is that you had so many different law enforcement agencies, there were so many that I haven't been able to list all of them. You had local sheriffs. Everyone was swarming toward here when it happened.

Word got out that the police here needed help, and everyone came from all over the place as far as San Antonio. And what happens is they get here, they don't really know each other. They don't really work together.

So the training needs to get better so that they can understand how to work together in these kinds of situations. And I can tell you, I've been spending a lot of time talking to the mayor here, Don McLaughlin, and he understands that.

And I think he understands some of the changes that need to occur. We're going to hear from him later today at a press conference where I think he's going to talk about some of that because I think this community and the police department here realizes that there was a problem here on that day.

And I think having this report, seeing this information, and obviously some of the video that's now being made public, they are very concerned about it. And they realize that changes need to occur.

WHITFIELD: Ok. And we'll talk more about this, Shimon.

So, Rosa, you've been in contact with a number of the family members. Many of the family members were able to read this report beforehand and also have been watching the surveillance videos.

So hearing this information now, does this only heighten the outrage? Does it answer questions? I mean what are you finding and hearing from family members, people in the community?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Fred, these families are still going through the report. From talking to some of the family members prior to the release of the report, there was outrage with the leak of the video specifically because these families didn't want the world to see the last moments of their loved ones before they got an opportunity to watch that video.

Now today what you see behind me is the civic center here in Uvalde, and families have been coming here one by one to get a copy of this report, a printed copy. Now, one of those individuals spoke on camera and said that they really don't believe that they'll ever get to the truth. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINCENT SALAZAR, FAMILY MEMBER LAYLA SALAZAR: We're not going to get the truth because there is cover-up. Everybody's throwing everybody under the bus. The only ones that aren't under the bus is because they're six feet in the ground now, and that's our children and the two teachers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, these families have gone through an excruciating nearly eight weeks now, Fred. They have been hearing changing narratives, finger pointing between local and state officials.

And now they have this report. And for the first time, they're actually going to be able to ask officials direct questions about what they learned in the report and also direct questions about the video and what they see in the video.

So that's one of the things that I have been hearing from families that is refreshing from them because until -- for them because until now, a lot of the information has been leaked or a lot of the video sounds or the situation around the leaks of the information and/or the video footage has been shown in media outlets before the family gets -- the families get to actually read about it or even watch it.

And so the families are meeting privately with this committee at 2:00 p.m. and at 4:00 p.m. we're expecting a press conference where officials are expected to answer questions, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then, Rosa, if you can help people see and understand how we got to this point. I mean we're at two months now after this horrific mass shooting, and this community has pressed for answers throughout.

[14:14:48]

WHITFIELD: And now while they have face-to-face scheduled meetings, there's a press conference later on today, they now have their eyes on this report. Can you explain for us how the community's involvement has helped either lead to this Texas House report or lead to the ongoing questions of pressing leadership and authority on how we got to this point two years -- I mean two months now after this horrible shooting, and still so many unanswered questions?

FLORES: You know, you're absolutely right. There are just so many unanswered questions here. And there are multiple reviews going on at the same time. The Texas DOJ is doing its own review. The alert system is also doing their own review. Those are law enforcement training experts.

There's the Texas House Investigative Committee, this report that's being issued. Now, we should be very clear this is from the Texas House, and the purpose of this report is fact-finding. It does not provide recommendations. It only provides the facts based on what they were able to gather from documents, video, and testimony from witnesses.

Now that report -- the report that the families are receiving today, will then be handed to two other committees within the Texas House. It's those committees that are now tasked with making recommendations to the state and also legislations so that this doesn't happen again.

Now, because this report isn't, quote, "dedicated" to go to, for example, the district attorney, Fred, that doesn't mean that the district attorney can't pick up a copy of this report and take a look at it and see if any of the findings have criminal consequence.

Now, we do know that the Texas Rangers with assistance from the FBI are investigating, and they are in charge of the criminal investigation. That's what the district attorney has been waiting for.

Now, the district attorney has been tight-lipped since all this happened. There's been very few statements mostly to the local newspaper here in Uvalde. But that's what the families are going to be looking for, and that is the accountability. What will happen after this report and other reviews go out? Will anyone be held accountable?

As Shimon said there were systemic failures that are outlined in this report, but will anything happen after? Will there be a consequence? Will someone be held accountable? That is what the families are looking for here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rosa Flores, Shimon Prokupecz -- we'll talk some more. We'll also going to continue with this breaking news coverage of the preliminary report on the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas after this quick break.

[14:17:32]

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WHITFIELD: All right. We're back now with our breaking news on this new Texas House report on the Uvalde elementary school shooting. It has found multiple failures, including an overall lackadaisical approach by authorities on the scene. This coming from that report, this 77-page that has just been released. And our Shimon Prokupecz has just gotten ahold of it and has read through a lot of it for us.

Joining us right now to talk more about what has come, CNN senior law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey. Phil Stanton is a former New York City police officer. Both of you, thank you so much for joining us.

So Chief, to you first, perhaps you heard a lot of what Shimon was reporting, and I'll just kind of summarize some of the points that were made from this 77-page report. Saying that there was no leader on the scene of all of these agencies -- local, state and federal -- who responded to the shooting. That the response was not unified. There was poor cell service. Coordinating communication was complicated. And they also placed some blame on the school for a lack of lockdowns.

So of all of that, what's your response to what this report is saying, that there were multiple failures?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, I'm not surprised. I mean what we know so far as to what took place from early reporting, watching the video in its entirety, I'm not surprised at all.

I mean this is a multi-jurisdictional response. It's not just Uvalde that's involved. There were multiple agencies that were there. A lack of leadership that was at the scene. There was no unified command established at all.

The officers, the first responders, they got there, acted in a manner that's inconsistent with active shooter training. The first three did attempt to go down to the door and make entry. They were fired upon. They retreated.

But no one ever reorganized to go back again because that's fundamental. That is important. You have to take out the threat. And that didn't happen.

And so you wind up with police officers standing around in the hallway while the shooter was still inside and shots are being fired. Children and teachers were dying.

So this is something that is just -- it's bad no matter how you look at it. All these various reports are going to say the same thing, pretty much so. And the question's going to be how do you fix it.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And so based on the video that you've seen and based on your assessment you just made, while initially the police response seemed like it was going according to plan, you see in the surveillance video officers arriving as you, you know, pointed out. They've got their guns drawn. They go to one of the classrooms. You hear in the background gunshots, but then they retreat. So while there may have been a failure, there clearly was a failure in what happened next.

What is supposed to happen in terms of having multiple agencies? Who takes the lead? Why is it that it seems that there was this sudden lack of urgency in any one person or one agency taking charge?

[14:24:55]

RAMSEY: That's why training is so important, and not just training in the tactical sense of officers knowing what to do, but also for leadership. Unified command has to be established.

WHITFIELD: By who?

RAMSEY: It's not just who's in charge, but who's in charge of what.

WHITFIELD: Right.

RAMSEY: What would be the ranking officer at the scene. And now you have the chief of school police that were there. I would assume it would be him. But it's not just who's in charge, it's who's in charge of what.

For example the chief of the school police, if there's a tactical commander there, special operations or whatever, they would be charge of the tactical planning and the assault that would be made on the classroom and so forth.

They say there's over 300 law enforcement that responded. That's way too many. You can -- I've been to scenes where too many people show up. And someone has to decide what assets do you need. What equipment, what personnel, who needs to be there.

You know, minimize the number of people that don't need to be there so that you don't wind up with a chaotic situation.

You had all these people responding. Nobody knew what to do. They just self-deployed and just showed up. That's a problem in and of itself. So you have to have some command and control of the entire event, not just what's going on inside the school, but what's happening outside. WHITFIELD: So then, Bill all of these agencies arriving, everyone has

had training in active shooter situations, ok. It's been established here there was no real leadership, but you know, people look at the surveillance video and just still are aghast as to how come someone didn't do something?

At what point does the instinct and the individual or agency training supersede the "we can't figure out who's in charge, but we know there are children on the other end of these doors, why don't we just go in?" What keeps that from happening?

BILL STANTON, FORMER NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER: Well, I'm going to agree with everything the chief said, and I'm going to sum up that report for me in one word. And that one word is complacency.

Complacency is the enemy of us all. Complacency with the school system, the police department, and all the other inter-departments. Now, to answer your question, when do you go, when do you not go, you can have all the planning and preplanning in the world, but once you hear those shots going into schoolchildren, you go. You rely on the training that you have, and you go to end the threat -- period, end of sentence.

Now, when New York City after 9/11, they did a more intense focus, something called the joint terrorist task force, but it took a 9/11 to bring these alphabetical agencies together to better focus on what they have, focus on their strengths.

And as the chief was saying, this was all confusing. Too many officers on scene, no one willing to step up and take command. And as I said earlier, several days ago on your network, it was a lack of training, a lack of command, and a lack of fortitude to do what was needed.

WHITFIELD: I hear you loud and clear. Yes. On that complacency and lack of fortitude because I think it would seem a lot of the family members are feeling that right now. You have the training, but what kept you from going inside even with no leadership as this report is underscoring.

So I wonder too, Bill, you know, this report is a fact-only-based finding. We heard that from our Rosa Flores. That was the goal.

Is it a disappointment that there are no recommendations made in this report? She did report that that might come later from house committees, but do you believe this report should have had some recommendations in it?

STANTON: Well, there are always recommendations to be made. But from municipality to city to town, all of the power infrastructures differ. So it's pretty hard for me to say what recommendations should have been made. I think first of all each department needs to look within and learn from this and get better. Then share that information and red team it.

What do I mean by red team? They need to do penetration tests. They need to constantly get better. If we're going to protect and serve as law enforcement we need to admit where we're wrong and work on making ourselves better and the agencies around us that much better as well.

WHITFIELD: So, Chief, what are you hoping will learned? I mean what are you hoping will resonate from the report and what we know thus far?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean I think this goes beyond just Uvalde. I think agency in the United States out to be paying attention to what took place and make sure that they're taking their training seriously. And that gets again to tactical training, the tabletop exercises to make sure the leadership understands what their responsibilities are when they get to the scene.

Not everyone can make decisions under pressure. And if I'm still an active chief, whoever I have running my special operations, I have to make sure that is a person that can function under pressure.

[14:29:54]

RAMSEY: And so those things like that, you know, you need to take all of that into consideration and not just assume that people not only know what to do but will do that they're trained to do.

[14:30:05]

You know, training can prepare you for a lot of things. One thing training can't give you is the courage to execute what it is you need to get done. And I'm afraid -- I mean, it's apparent that some of that was lacking at the time as well.

And so, you know, we've got to look at this and I know it sounds harsh, but we have to really pick it apart, we have to learn from it, and understand that the whole -- you've got to get better.

And, you know, we learned from Columbine. There was a time responding officers were told to contain the area and wait for SWAT. Well, you know, God bless them, the SWAT, it takes too long for them to get the operators together, to be able to go in and do what they need to do.

In the meantime, you know, in the first couple of minutes is when most people lose their lives. So, it's now the responsibility of the first officers to make that entry. That's why in many departments now, officers carry long guns, not just the handguns.

I mean, all of that stuff is important. We learn as we go, and we've got to take this and learn from it as well, as bad as it is.

WHITFIELD: Right. And perhaps that's what's so perplexing and aggravating because so much was learned after 1999 in Columbine. And you just -- you know, laid out the many lessons as a result of what's the consequence if you wait. So, everyone knows this. There have been so many other shootings involving schools since that point, and that underscores the frustration as to why -- as, Bill, you described it a complacency -- why did we see that kind of complacency in that surveillance video?

STANTON: You're asking me? WHITFIELD: Yeah, Bill.

STANTON: Oh, absolutely. What you saw was, in my opinion, not so much an act of cowardice, more of an act of training. Now, we say training, how much training. And what that's going to go to is budgets and I hate to use the dirty "P" word, politics.

You know, do we train our officers more? There are certain voices that say defund. There are other voices that say train more. I heard the word "long guns." There are certain cities in America that don't want any guns.

So we have to look at this and see what, to your point, on the video as they were just standing there -- I was able to tell they weren't trained in strategic response. They were there, they were hanging out, they weren't watching their six. They weren't looking down the hallways to see if there was a second shooter. They weren't looking for a commander. There were a lot of things.

I mean, it's easy for me to say. I wasn't in the moment. But, again, training, repetition, penetration tests, but that costs money.

And are these politicians, are these people willing to pay for that protection?

WHITFIELD: Even in that surveillance video, many people observed -- there seemed to be times some officers were scrolling through their phones or even iPads or even hand sanitizer. I mean, while you can hear in the background in some portions of that tape, you can hear the gunfire.

So it's still just hard to understand why there wasn't a greater urgency, even if you don't have leadership or someone telling you what to do collectively. Where's the individual instinct to want to intervene and do something and save these children's and teachers' lives.

STANTON: Well, my feeling, if I and the chief were working together, we would look at each other hearing those shots, we would make a plan right there, and we would go. I can't speak for everyone. Different officers handle stress in different ways. Optically, it did not look good.

WHITFIELD: OK. We're going to talk more about all this, because again, we're learning more about this 77-page report. Our Shimon Prokupecz and his team are able to kind of comb through and give us an assessment so far of the report from the Texas house committee that is evaluating and on its fact-finding mission of what happened two months ago at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

And, so, Chief, and, Bill, please stand by.

We're going to talk more about this with our ongoing breaking news coverage of this preliminary report on the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, right after this.

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[14:38:43]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

We are discussing the release of the Texas House investigation probe into the Uvalde school massacre.

Charles Ramsey and Bill Stanton are back with me.

Chief Ramsey, so when you hear about all these failures in this Texas house report, does this in your view rise to negligence or even criminality, and at the same time, does it also absolve this school police chief Pete Arredondo because there were multiple agencies, multiple leaders who this report says failed?

RAMSEY: Well, I doubt if it absolves anybody of anything at this point and whether or not anything rises to a criminal level, I'm not an attorney and I can't really comment on that, and I haven't really read the report. But obviously it raises a lot of questions that have to be addressed and fixed. Whether it's criminal or not, you just can't have this continue.

I think one of the biggest challenges that leadership lie the mayor of Uvalde and others are going to face is going to be, you know, the faith that the citizens have now in that particular police department in light of this, and what do you do? How do you regain that?

I mean, I think that's going to be tough for him to be able to deal with.

[14:40:02]

And I think at some point in time at a local level, if anything's going to happen in terms of accountability, that's where it's going to happen. It's going to be at the local level.

WHITFIELD: Uh-huh. And, Bill, how you do see the community of Uvalde finding faith in the leadership, whether it be law enforcement or, you know, city leadership? I mean, what -- what do you see?

STANTON: Unfortunately, I see the city and town leaders reacting to the similar fashion to the what -- to the way the shooting was handled. Unorganized, disenfranchised, no one's stepping up and taking responsibility, and that's disheartening to me. No one's raising their hand and saying, I messed up, I'll going to resign, I'm going to step down and that needs to happen.

And from there, cities all over the country need to look within now, and even though they think it's never going to happen to them, what I always say is anyone that's ever been a victim, when they woke up that day, they didn't think they were going to be a victim.

We have to empower ourselves, step up, and go proactive with our police department, with our city and state leaders and saying, how are you going to help us help ourselves? WHITFIELD: And, Chief, I mean, there's shared blame, right, and this new report underscores that. But of all these 300 law enforcement people who responded, whether it be in the local level, Uvalde, or whether it'd be border patrol, state troopers, all -- how do you suppose they're thinking? What are they thinking? How are they feeling, especially as a result of what this report is revealing?

RAMSEY: I would imagine anybody who responded to that is feeling pretty down. I mean, how can you not? I mean, there was multiple failures. Not everybody was directly responsible.

I mean, 300 some odd police officers -- I've been to a lot of those scenes, believe me. A lot of those -- they had no role. They were there, but they had no role. They responded.

But there are some that responded that should have had a role. And I don't know how you deal with that. If I was standing in that hallway for 77 minutes -- and ironically it's a 77-page report.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. I thought that was odd, too.

RAMSEY: But if I was standing -- yeah, if I was standing in that hallway for 77 minutes and I heard gunshots and I know that kids were being shot, and Lord knows how many of them bled to death as a result of the delay in making entry, you know, I don't know if I could deal with that sort of thing.

And so, it's just a bad situation all the way around. There's nothing positive in this at all. But we can turn it into something that at least we can learn from it because there were some breakdowns that should not have happened. If people had followed the training that was out there, it would not have happened.

But they didn't follow it or they didn't get it. And I wouldn't assume that they all got it. Again, an agency like this that's so small, any major incident is going to be a multi-jurisdictional response. And that's why tabletops and people understanding, you know, who responds, who's in charge, who's in charge of what? What kind of equipment do you have? Why are you even coming here?

Because, you know, I mean, those are the kinds of things that through training, you can really resolve so you can deal with it effectively once it does occur. When I was chief in D.C., we had a lot of jurisdictions around us. When we had major events, we had to bring in different agencies, but guess what? We trained together.

It was not only the chiefs who knew one other, but the officers at their level, special operations people. Everybody knew everybody. So when you came together you really came together in a unified force, you know? We understood the policies and so forth, and we knew what we were doing when we got there. Apparently, that's not the case there.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, hence, the coordination you spoke of and now this report revealing the lack of cooperation.

So, Bill, if after 1999's Columbine, among the thing that was learned is the urgency, you go in, you don't wait, what will be learned from this, you know, debacle, this fatal debacle that led to the deaths, the killings of 19 children and two teachers at Uvalde?

STANTON: Again, lack of complacency, going proactive, and communication. Communication between inter-departments, communication with the school.

The school learning from this. Schools around the country -- fire drills, active shooter drills, et cetera.

[14:45:00]

Now we're talking about post-traumatic.

We also have to learn how to identify better. If we get word on how do we investigate it, how do we interview, you know, the gun laws, you know, looking at these individuals and really doing a deep dive on them and trying to stop it before it actually happens.

All these things have to come into play, and it's incumbent upon each of us in law enforcement, politicians, parents to go proactive. I can't stress how much the importance of this not just sit down, get up, call your school teacher, call the safety officer, go to the police department, and we need to learn and move forward together.

WHITFIELD: Bill Stanton, Chief Charles Ramsey, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

And, of course, we're still poring through these 77 pages of this Texas House report, and, of course, when we learn more information and details, we'll bring that to you as we learn it.

But, first, the January 6 Committee investigating the insurrection expects to receive in just a couple of days the U.S. Secret Service text messages from January 5th and 6th. Details on that straight ahead.

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[14:50:17]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

CNN is learning today that the U.S. Secret Service text messages from before and during the Capitol siege on January 6 should be turned over to the House Committee investigating the insurrection in just a couple of days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): And we expect to get them by this Tuesday. So we'll see.

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: And just all the text messages?

LOFGREN: We need all the texts from the 5th and the 6th of January. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The Homeland Security's inspector general accused the Secret Service of erasing those texts after his office requesting them. The Secret Service denies deleting texts maliciously. It says some phone data was lost during a planned system migration but insists none of the texts the inspector general was seeking had been lost.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joining us now from Washington.

So, Kaitlan, the next major hearing from the committee will be a prime-time event this coming Thursday. But on these U.S. Secret Service texts, is the story changing about whether they were lost or deleted or they have, indeed, been recovered?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right. Well, Fred, I think we can say so far this story is evolving day by day. There was this discovery from the DHS inspector general that these texts were missing, that they were erased in this data migration. And then the House Select Committee quickly took interest in it and has been trying over the past 48 hours to get to the bottom of exactly what happened there. That's where we say the subpoena on Friday night asking for the text messages that the Secret Service has.

And I should say, the message in the past even day from the Secret Service has been one of cooperation. They really want to say how much they have cooperated with the Select Committee already in understanding January 6. And we are learning this morning that they are going to be turning over these text messages that were subpoenaed, as far as they have them, to the House Select Committee.

But the question still remains, what is missing there? Will there be gaps in what should be the compilation of text messages that the service has. The House Select Committee doesn't know the answer to that yet, but they're certainly looking for that and hoping to resolve these questions pretty quickly.

WHITFIELD: Okay, all right. So, now this Thursday prime time hearing, what is expected? What might be the focus?

POLANTZ: Well, Fred, this is really about 187 minutes. That's what the committee says they're going to be looking into -- 187 minutes of Donald Trump in the White House watching the riot on Capitol Hill.

As Adam Kinzinger, one of the members of the committee said this morning, Trump was watching gleefully as they his were ransacking that building. We also heard from Representative Elaine Luria today on television. She was previewing the hearing a bit as well.

Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA): We'll go through it minute by minute, from the time he left the stage of the ellipse, came back to the White House, and really sat in the White House in the dining room, you know, with his advisers urging him contentiously to take action, take more action.

Not only was he not doing anything, at one point, that infamous tweet at we know at 2:24, he actually egged people on by saying Vice President Pence did have the courage to, quote/unquote, do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: One of the things that the committee members are making clear today, though, is that this is not the end of their investigation on Thursday. This is just the end of the first tranche of hearings. They're continuing to get new information everyday and they're making this promise that we will be learning things we did not know before on Thursday -- Fred.

WHITIFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Katelyn Polantz. Of course, CNN will have coverage of that.

All right. Health officials may authorize second boosters of the COVID vaccine for those under 50. Details on that, next.

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[14:58:38]

WHITFIELD: All right. The U.S. Health Department and FDA are now discussing whether a second booster is necessary for adults under the age of 50.

CNN's Camila Bernal joins us live from the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles.

So, Camila, mask mandates also might be making a comeback in Los Angeles County.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, yes, it is very likely because what's happening here in Los Angeles is that COVID is spreading and it is spreading quickly. In fact, we know that here in the county, about 9,000 cases are reported a day.

The concern, though, is the increase of hospitalization. It's actually gone up about 88 percent in comparison from last month. When you look at deaths, the country is saying that 14 people are dying from COVID every day over the last week. Those are the numbers that they've given us.

So, what they're saying is that when you look at the cases, the hospitalizations and deaths, it is very likely the masks are going to be back on. The officials are going to look at the numbers over the next two weeks and that's when they'll make a decision on whether or not reinstating that mask mandate.

But look, it's not going to be easy. I've spoken to people who say they will comply and wear a mask and do everything they can to help others. There are others who say they do not want to wear a mask again. And it's going to be the stores, the gyms, all of those places that are having to deal with these problems -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Camila Bernal, thank you so much.

All right. The next hour of THE NEWSROOM starts right now.