“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
-Jesus
In 2018, media reported a story about two teenagers, 13 and 14 years of age, who planned a Columbine-style massacre at a local middle school. They were promptly arrested for conspiracy to kill. What was the town?
Uvalde.
In 2020, a 16-year-old girl called a local police department night and day threatening to shoot up schools and threatening the lives of officers, an elected official, and a Texas Ranger. What was the town?
Uvalde.
In 2022, an 18-year-old ran his pickup into a ditch and entered an elementary school killing 19 children. What’s the town?
Uvalde.
What on earth is going on in Uvalde, TX?
Some journalists have incorporated the 2018 and 2020 stories into their reporting to give context around what’s happened this week, but no one has really been able to connect the dots.
Here’s some easy math: In 2018, one of the planners was 14 years of age. Four years later, in 2022, the shooter who carried out this week’s shooting was 18 years of age. I have yet to hear any explanation — and I have been floating the story out there like mad — as to why this has yet to be seriously investigated.
Now, ages can be coincidental, but here’s what’s chilling. After the 2018 arrest of the two teenagers, Uvalde CISD released a statement saying:
“Our school district is committed to the safety and education of all our students and we want to clearly communicate about safety issues when they arise. One of our Morales Junior High students was experiencing a crisis. Upon rendering aid and support, the student revealed a future plan to conduct a school shooting in the year of 2022.”
That’s the actual quote. And it’s from a 2018 statement.
So far, I’ve gotten the KENS-5 reporter to respond to me, and he says he will look into it. I hope he does.
The teenagers actually wanted to carry out their plan in April, 2022, the anniversary of Columbine. This week’s shooting came a month late, but still — same semester, same year as planned.
If mere coincidence, it is still a mighty coincidence indeed, and I am surprised few are even asking the question. The record of the 14-year-old is sealed since he was a juvenile at the time, though from my limited understanding a court could allow for the record to be opened if asked by an attorney.
Of course, such a revelation would be a black eye on law enforcement, which is already taking heat for not engaging the shooter more quickly. However, even those details may not be entirely accurate, despite horrific videos of parents outside the school screaming for them to do something.
The larger question is what is going on in Uvalde, and why are there threats of school shootings every other year in a town of 16,000 people? Even if the 2022 shooter was not one of the 2018 planners, it should be reasonable to ask whether he was inspired by the teenagers’ plan from four years ago or not? And, how could law enforcement not see the warning signs from the 2022 shooter beforehand?
Uvalde CISD had even — supposedly — been pumping up security over the years:
“Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had doubled its security budget in recent years [. . .] The district adopted an array of security measures that included its own police force, threat assessment teams at each school, a threat reporting system, social media monitoring software, fences around schools and a requirement that teachers lock their classroom doors, according to the security plan posted on the district’s website.”
The cold hard reality is that the shooter just walked through the door. So much could have been avoided by simply locking the door. “Lock the door!” is not an election-winning platform, but it’s a reasonable security measure nonetheless.
Lastly. Not that you would or should, but if you decide to do some snooping of your own, I ask you not to direct any inquiries to the staff of the Uvalde Leader News, the local newspaper. I have good reason to believe their staff has been directly affected by this tragedy.
This final rabbit trail of information is really for my own memory and benefit: I am curious about the Texas Ranger that was threatened in the 2020 calls to law enforcement. Why a Texas Ranger, specifically? Two years before that, in the 2018 arrest of the two teenagers, certain material investigations were carried out by a Texas Ranger named Ryan Kindell. There is a Texas Ranger who readily pops up in searches named Christopher Kindell who oversees Uvalde County, but based on a newsletter picture from a local bank that identifies a Texas Ranger named “Ryan Kindell,” I think it’s safe to say it’s the same person.