FRONTLINE, Texas Tribune and ProPublica Reporting Recognized as 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Columbia University today announced that groundbreaking reporting from The Texas Tribune, ProPublica and FRONTLINE on the response to the 2022 Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has been named a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist in the explanatory reporting category. 

Drawing on a trove of unreleased investigative files to produce a stunning and exhaustive investigation, the December 2023 documentary Inside the Uvalde Response and a series of written stories featured never-before-published interviews conducted by state and federal investigators in the days immediately after the shooting. FRONTLINE, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune provided families in Uvalde and people across the country with a powerful and detailed account of what went wrong in one of the worst school shootings in American history.

The investigation identified critical missteps in the response to the Uvalde mass shooting, underlined the complexity, chaos and tragedy of the day and the lessons learned.

The series involved the work of Lomi Kriel, Lexi Churchill, Perla Trevizo and Jessica Priest for ProPublica and the Tribune; Jinitzail Hernández and Zach Despart for the Tribune. Juanita Ceballos, one of FRONTLINE’s Investigative Journalist Equity Initiative filmmakers, wrote and directed Inside the Uvalde Response alongside FRONTLINE producer and editor, Michelle Mizner and co-producer and senior editor Lauren Prestileo. 

After the joint investigation, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled the findings of a federal probe into the response. Garland pointed to missteps that led to delays in confronting the shooter. Then he turned to what he said was the biggest failure, one that required the most urgent action to avoid another colossal breakdown such as the one that cost lives that day: the lack of sufficient active shooter training for law enforcement. Garland’s comments validated the investigation’s finding that active shooter training for responding officers varied widely, and some hadn’t trained in years. An analysis by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE found no states mandate annual active shooter training for police officers, while at least 37 states require active shooter-related drills in schools, typically on a yearly basis.

“We hope that this accountability reporting provides answers to the victims’ families, the broader Uvalde community and the American public who grieved alongside them,” says FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath. “We share this incredible honor with our partners at The Texas Tribune and ProPublica.”

According to its website, The Pulitzer Prizes were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.

Explore our joint reporting with The Texas Tribune and ProPublica and watch Inside the Uvalde Response below: