Retired FBI agent fatally shot by school police at an El Paso, TX high school
His family said that after retirement Cordero sometimes didn't sleep for days, experienced paranoia, and PTSD symptoms. His investigations led to convictions of 41 public officials in El Paso.
Last Thursday, Franklin High (TX) went on lockdown and classes were cancelled after school police fatally shot a man in the school parking lot at 6am. The cross country team was practicing at the time of the shooting and took shelter inside the building. On the day of the shooting, police didn’t release any information about the circumstances of the incident.
The victim has now been identified as Julio Cordero (pictured holding the child), a retired FBI agent who served for 23 years. Cordero was the lead agent in 'Operation Poisoned Pawns', a 2007 public corruption investigation where the FBI raided the El Paso County Courthouse resulting in 41 convictions of public officials including three former county judges, county commissioners, and school board members.
Cordero's family reported that his mental health began declining after a suicidal man jumped in front of his car and died in 2014. After retirement, Cordero sometimes didn't sleep for days, experienced paranoia, and PTSD symptoms.
Cordero's son attended Franklin High where the fatal shooting occurred. While police have not released details about the shooting, there are reports that Cordero was breaking windows at the school prior to being confronted by an El Paso Independent School District police officer.
Systemic Failures
How does the FBI agent who led the biggest public corruption investigation in Texas history end up dead at a high school?
These systemic failures all contributed to the fatal shooting:
Stigma against seeking formal mental health treatment in public safety.
No retirement safety net to check on the mental health of former agents who learned to separate work/problems from their family during their careers.
Lack of crisis intervention programs to assist families with acute symptoms.
Increased number of armed police and armed staff at schools (mandated at every school in Texas) which can escalate any interaction into a shooting.
Inadequate school police training in recognize and de-escalating acute mental health crisis.
Police Use of Force policy that allows deadly force during a mental health crisis.
A mental health crisis on campus doesn't need to turn into a deadly encounter. Last school year at New Haven Public Schools, the janitor saw a man in the parking lot with a gun during morning classes who appeared to be in mental distress. The unarmed janitor approached him, talked to him, and de-escalated the situation until police arrived. Students in class had no idea that a security incident on campus even took place.
School Guardians and PTSD
Last year, Texas House Bill 3 was signed by the governor and requires every school in the state to have an armed officer, armed staff member, or armed ‘school guardian’ on campus. In Texas, retired law enforcement and military members can become armed "school guardians" with minimal or no vetting.
It's important to remember that police and veterans are high risk groups for PTSD and suicide. Even if a retired FBI agent like Cardero was experiencing a mental health crisis, Texas schools would fast track him into carrying a gun on campus as an armed school guardian. Texas also lacks red flag laws to take a firearm away from a person who is depressed, suicidal, or suffering from a psychotic episode.
Trusted Gun Carriers and Mass Shootings
Why are retired law enforcement officers and former military members fast tracked into the Texas school guardian program? Is it correct to assume that someone who served in law enforcement or the military has a sound mind and good intentions?
While many veterans are proud Americans who would love to protect school children, sadly there are a significant number of veterans involved in mass shootings including:
Texas church shooter Devin Kelley, who killed 26 people, was an Air Force veteran (2017)
George Jo Hennard, who killed 22 in Killeen, Texas, had served in the Navy (1991)
Michael McDermott, who shot seven people in Wakefield, Massachusetts, served in the Navy (2000)
Robert Flores was a veteran of the Persian Gulf war who shot his three nursing professors in Tucson, Arizona (2002)
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, killed 13 when he went on a rampage at Fort Hood (2009)
Wade Michael Page, the white supremacist who killed six at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, had served six years in the U.S. Army (2012)
Radcliffe Haughton, an ex-marine, killed three women, including his wife, at a spa in Wisconsin (2012)
Aaron Alexis, a Navy veteran, killed twelve at the Washington Navy Yard (2013)
Ivan Lopez-Lopez, an Iraq War veteran, killed three at Fort Hood in Texas (2014)
Timothy McVeigh, whose truck bomb killed 168 in Oklahoma City in 1995, was a veteran of the Persian Gulf War (1995)
Robert Card, a US Army Reservist, killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Maine at a bowling alley and restaurant (2023)
Being a former military member or a retired law enforcement officer does not exclude someone from wanting to harm themselves or others. Mass shooting and school shootings are violent public suicides where the attacker has a direct and personal connection to the location or people targeted. An increased rate of PTSD and suicidal ideation in former military and law enforcement members is an added risk factor.
Military members are 4x more likely than the civilian population to commit a mass shooting that kills 4 or more people. Since 1966, 52 of 197 (26%) of 4+ fatality shootings in public places were committed by current or former members of the US military.
Based on the risk factors and increased rate of mass violence and suicide, school district should conduct extra vetting of retired law enforcement or military members before allowing them to be armed on campus.
Find out more in my article from 2018 after the Parkland shooting, Popular Nonsense: Armed Vets in Schools. Peer-reviewed article: An Analysis of Veteran Perpetuated Mass Shootings & Social Work’s Call to Action (Collins, 2023).
Prevention and Crisis Intervention
Mass shootings and school shootings are rarely committed by strangers. While we don’t know why Cordero was breaking windows at Franklin High School, we do know that he had a direct connection to the campus because his son was a current student and he was suffering from a mental health crisis when he was killed.
A harmful consequence of having more armed staff and police at schools is that they can turn a mental health crisis into a fatal shooting. If armed staff come from high-risk groups facing PTSD and suicide rates that are significantly higher than the general population, there is an additional risk to students posed by the armed guardian.
Instead of militarizing and fortifying schools, we need to prioritize mental health and crisis intervention programs for students, their families, and the entire community while limiting access to a firearm when someone is experiencing a mental crisis, or wants to harm themselves or others.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, Chief Data Officer at a global risk management firm, and a tenure-track professor. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and my article on CNN about AI and school security.