Warminster Man To Sit On Review Board Of Uvalde, Texas Mass Shooting

WARMINSTER, PA — A Bucks County man has been asked by the United States Department of Justice to sit on a team that will review the response of Uvalde, Texas law enforcement's response to the recent mass shooting.

Mark Lomax, a retired major with the Pennsylvania State Police, former Warminster supervisor, and a police management consultant who once worked for the United Nations, will potentially sit on a team made by the DOJ to investigate the actions of local Texas authorities on the day of May 24, 2022, when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and killed 19 students and two teachers before being killed himself.

According to the Bucks County Courier Times, the DOJ reached out to Lomax earlier this month, andhe is scheduled to leave for Texas in the near future. If he joins the team, which consists of nine members, he will oversee the issues related to practices for active shooter situations, and specific actions that were taken during the incident.

"The purpose of this is to give a total and thorough review of what happened, and to come up with recommendations and best practices for the future," Lomax told the Courier Times. "That is what the team has been charged with."

Uvalde authorities have been facing heavy criticism for their response to the shooting. Bystanders and parents begged officers to enter the school while the shooting was taking place.

Lomax has also worked as a member of a peace-keeping continent in the United Nations, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and as former executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, a professional group for law enforcement involved in special operations, according to the Courier Times.

He was a major with the Pennsylvania State Police for 27 years and was executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association for five years.

Lomax, a Democrat, had run for Bucks County Sheriff in late 2021. He lost the race to Republican Fred Harran, the former Director of Public Safety in Bensalem.