The Texas state senator who represents Uvalde, alongside the parents of the children killed in the state’s deadliest school shooting, are calling on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s director to resign following reports a former trooper who responded to the massacre was hired as a school district police officer.
CNN reported Wednesday that Crimson Elizondo — one of the first of the 91 DPS officers to respond to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 children and two teachers — was hired as an officer for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
According to CNN, Elizondo was one of seven troopers under investigation for their response to the massacre, but resigned over the summer. Video released Wednesday by the network showed Elizondo remarking on she would have acted differently if she had a child in the school.
In a written statement, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, said the hiring came after Uvalde parents were “assured by Uvalde CISD that no officers involved in the shooting response would be deployed to Uvalde Elementary, where many Robb Elementary students now go to school.”
Under a banner reading “KEEP U.C.I.S.D. SAFE,” Elizondo was listed Wednesday on the department’s staff page as a police officer. On Thursday morning, she had been removed.
The district confirmed in a statement Thursday that Elizondo was fired “effective immediately.”
“We are deeply distressed by the information that was disclosed yesterday concerning one of our recently hired employees, Crimson Elizondo,” the statement said. “We sincerely apologize to the victim’s families and the greater Uvalde community for the pain that this revelation has caused.”
CNN reported Thursday that DPS alerted the district in July that Elizondo was being investigated over an allegation her actions were not consistent with her training and department policy.
DPS Director Steven McCraw has not commented on the calls for his resignation.
‘I promise you that’
In body-worn camera footage obtained by CNN, Elizondo is seen arriving at the school within two minutes of the initial reports an armed man had entered the school.
Eighty minutes of inaction elapsed before police confronted and killed the shooter, who fired at least 142 rounds, according to a timeline from McCraw. Elizondo walked inside the building briefly during that time, but mostly stood outside.
With her DPS uniform stained with blood — it is not clear whose — Elizondo is heard speaking to someone who asked whether she had children inside the school.
“If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside,” she said. “I promise you that.”
Gutierrez said in the statement that McCraw had promised he’d be the ”first to resign...if there is any culpability in the Department of Public Safety. Period.”
“It’s time for Governor Abbott to call for McCraw’s resignation, and finally show an ounce of leadership and empathy for Uvalde families,” the statement said.
Parents join a call to action
Parents of the 19 children fatally shot expressed outrage over the footage of Elizondo on social media, all joining the call for McCraw to step down.
“I don’t want to hear that it is difficult to prosecute. Not now,” Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of 10-year-old Lexi Rubio, wrote on Twitter. “She knew those kids, my baby, were in danger. It just wasn’t her child. McCraw, I’ll be waiting on your promised resignation.”
“UCISD installed 8 foot non scalable fences, but failed to consider that the vulnerabilities could be coming from inside the house!” wrote Brett Cross, legal guardian of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia.
“It wasnt your baby, right? Thats why you didnt go in ‘Officer Elizondo?’” wrote Kimberly Garcia, mother of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza. “MY child WAS IN THERE! My child was SCARED! She was in danger! Those babies and 2 teachers were in there! McCraw RESIGN NOW!”
The news of Elizondo’s hiring and subsequent firing comes on the heels of a 10-day protest, largely led by families of the victims, to demand the district police officers who responded to the shooting be suspended until a third-party investigation into the response has concluded.
Cross started the protest Sept. 27, and has been staying on school grounds around the clock since then, often using a projector to play videos of the children and sleeping on a cot near the employee entrance used by the superintendent and other school officials.
“We’ve given them 18 weeks to do something, so now we’re not begging anymore — we’re demanding,” Cross told ABC News last week. “I’m not leaving until they get this done.”
Cross, who has been documenting his efforts to demands more transparency and accountability from officials on Twitter, shared the news of Elizondo’s firing Thursday afternoon, reiterating he will remain on school grounds until the other officers are suspended.
“Uvalde families are done with excuses,” Gutierrez said in the statement.
