Angeli Gómez, the Uvalde, Texas, mother who was handcuffed by law enforcement officials during the recent massacre at Robb Elementary School, broke her silence about the incident last week, telling her heart-wrenching story to CBS News — despite threats from local police seemingly intended to intimidate her into silence.
Upon arriving at the school after hearing news of the still-ongoing shooting, Gómez claimed a U.S. Marshal briefly handcuffed her and insinuated further consequences, saying, “Well, we’re going to have to arrest you because you’re being very uncooperative.” The Marshals service has denied handcuffing anyone at the scene, saying instead that their officers “maintained order and peace in the midst of the grief-stricken community that was gathering around the school.”
“I said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to arrest me because I’m going in there. And I’m telling you right now, I don’t see none of y’all in there. Y’all are standing with snipers and y’all are far away. If y’all don’t go in there, I’m going in there,’” Gómez told CBS News.
After she was released by law enforcement, Gómez ran into the elementary school herself and rescued her two sons from their classrooms.
Several days after the massacre, Gómez says she received a phone call from an unnamed police official who told her that if she continued speaking to the press about her experiences at the school, she could be charged with obstruction of justice in violation of her decades-old probation agreement. The implied threat was clear — until her probationary judge shortened the terms of her agreement and heralded her bravery for saving her children.
Speaking with CBS News, a visibly distraught Gómez grew even more emotional when talking about what could have been done differently during the school shooting.
“They could have saved many more lives,” she said. “They could have gone into the classroom, and maybe two or three would have been gone, but they could have saved the whole, more, the whole class.”
