Residents in Uvalde are angry and demand answers about the Police response to school shooting. City says they don’t have any

Angrily grieving relatives sought answers to the Robb Elementary School shooting at a rancorous meeting on Thursday of the Uvalde City Council. However, the mayor said that he does not have any new information beyond a month following the tragedy.

“Nobody’s giving us any answers, it’s been over a month, you have no idea how frustrating that is. We’re sitting here, just listening to empty words,” said the sister of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers who were killed May 24 in a rampage that took the lives of 19 children and another instructor.

Family members also demanded to know why school police chief Pete Arredondo, who is also a member of the city council, has missed a second consecutive meeting. Many critics were expecting him to appear Thursday to answer their questions about his delayed response.

Earlier this month, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said Arredondo, who was onsite commander during the shooting, made “terrible decisions,”It can cost valuable time that could have been used to save lives.

“The officers had weapons, the children had none. The officers had body armor, the children had none,”McCraw stated. “The officers had training, the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes, and eight seconds, – that is how long the children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued,”He concluded.

“We’re not trying to hide anything from you,”Don McLaughlin, Mayor of Uvalde, spoke at Thursday’s meeting. “We don’t have anything.”

Multiple local, state and federal agencies are investigating the horrific shooting, with the Texas Rangers leading the inquiry.

The mayor said he has not heard from Arredondo since he requested a leave of absence after the shootings and was turned down by the council. If he misses a third meeting, the council can declare his seat vacant.

Family members of the victims wept and shouted as they berated city officials for giving them no information from the investigation.

“We’re looking for some answers that nobody seems to be getting, and it’s just making Uvalde PD and everybody else look even more guilty,” said Berlinda Arreola, grandmother of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the murdered children.

“Look at this as a dad, as a parent,” said Garza’s dad who was also at the meeting. “What if it was your kid?”

Garcia’s sister, Velma Lisa Duran, also slammed the council for not disclosing plans for the upcoming school year.

“Enough is enough, this is ridiculous. It is frightening to be a teacher now. Now they wanna arm teachers. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. You need to do something, these kids are not gonna go back to school and it’s gonna be on y’all’s hands,” she said.

“My sister was obliterated,” Duran said, sobbing. “I couldn’t hug her. I couldn’t say my last goodbye.”

The mayor has said the city plans to demolish Robb Elementary School, but some parents have decried that decision, saying the campus is still an active crime scene.

“We do not have any answers. We don’t get justice.” one parent said at the meeting.

The mayor also said he cannot release any information because such details should come from state authorities.

“It has to come from either the governor or attorney general. I don’t get any answers from either.” he said.

A parent who broke from police custody to jump a fence and rescue her two children has complained she is being harassed by officers, her attorney said this week.

Mother Angeli Rose Gomez has publicly criticized police who held back screaming parents at the shooting scene as they begged law enforcement officers surrounding the school to do something as shots rang out from inside the campus.

“She did act in a very brave manner,” said her lawyer, Mark Di Carlo, who said he’s representing about 15 members of the Uvalde community. “I have it corroborated from at least two people that she did go into the school, she did jump the fence, she was handcuffed. I don’t believe that any officers were in that school until she went in and then they followed her in,”The attorney said HuffPothis week.

Di Carlo said police have harassed Gomez by sitting outside her home in a patrol car and pulling her over for a needless traffic stop.

Uvalde, the city, has denied these claims and stated that its officers didn’t handcuff Gomez at school shooting scene.

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