The stepfather of a 10-year-old who was killed in the Uvalde school massacre has accused authorities of “humiliating” and “lying” to the families of victims.
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday, Angel Garza said Texas law enforcement authorities were “humiliating” families by failing to hold themselves accountable.
A Texas House report issued on Sunday night said it found “law enforcement responders failed” to follow protocols and “failed to prioritise saving innocent lives over their own safety” during the shooting at the school.
Lt. Mariano Pargas, a Uvalde Police Department officer who had been the city’s acting police chief that day, was placed on administrative leave following the report.
“It makes us feel like our kids can’t rest in peace, all this arguing and bickering and lying to our face, it doesn’t help our situation at all”, said Mr Garza of the report.
Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief, was known to have already been on leave and according to the Associated Press, other law enforcement officers have since resigned.
Investigators said despite 400 officers from local, state and federal agencies arriving at the elementary school shooting, nobody took overall charge of the scene.
Officers didn’t know that children trapped inside a classroom with the gunman were calling 911. That room was not breached by officers for 72 minutes who instead spent time looking for a key; the door was reportedly unlocked.
Asked about “what accountability looked like” for the families of Uvalde, Mr Garza told Cooper that comparing UIvalde with the 4 July shooting in Illinois was evidence of authorities failing to hold themselves accountable.
“Everybody says that. People tell me that they’ve never seen anything like this. You know, agencies arguing amongst each other, trying to point the finger on who did this and who did what,” he said.
“Highland Park happened after us and we already know everything about that, we know everything, so it makes no sense that there’s still things that aren’t answered about this”.
The report into the police response in Uvalde also noted that “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.” Further inquiries are expected.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
