Updated May 29, 2022 at 1:27 PM ET
The Justice Department will conduct a review of the police response to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, at the request of the city's mayor, Don McLaughlin.
"The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events," DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley announced in a statement on Sunday.
The Office of Community Oriented Policing will conduct the review and publish a report with its findings after the review concludes, the department said.
In the wake of Tuesday's shooting, law enforcement officials have come under growing criticism for their response to a massacre that left 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers dead. The gunman spent more than an hour inside the school before he was ultimately killed by a tactical unit, despite officers' earlier arrival to the scene.
The department's announcement came as President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Uvalde to pay their respects to the victims of the attack.
In Uvalde, the Bidens were scheduled to meet with victims' families and community leaders. Shortly after landing in Texas, the president rode to Robb Elementary, where he and the first lady visited a makeshift memorial to the victims.
The president arrived in Uvalde less than two weeks after he traveled to Buffalo to meet with the families of victims of another mass shooting there, which left 10 people dead after a racist attack at a supermarket.
Speaking from the White House on Tuesday in the hours after the Uvalde attack, the president made an urgent call for action on gun safety.
"As a nation we have to ask, 'When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?'" Biden said. "When in God's name are we going to do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?"
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