Texas school shooting the worst law enforcement fiasco since George Floyd: State Democrat
Democrat State Sen. Roland Gutierrez of Uvalde, Texas joins Martha MacCallum to discuss the investigation into law enforcement's response to the shooting on 'The Story.'
The reportedly botched law enforcement response to the Uvalde school shooting was the nation's worst "fiasco" for the thin blue line since George Floyd died following several minutes being pinned to the ground in Minneapolis, a Democratic Texas state senator claimed Monday.
Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, Texas told Fox News he also was "left off" of a state commission conducting a postmortem investigation on the tragic mass murder.
"I've been very truthful with the public. I've been very truthful with the media as information was given to me," he said.
"Information froze up as-of about last Friday, I believe it was, when the investigation was shut down. The fact is, we're asking for transparency. We just want to know where each law enforcement agency was in that hallway where they were outside that building."
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A banner hangs at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School on Friday, June 3. (AP/Eric Gay)
Gutierrez mentioned the fact the school had reinforced steel doors that opened outward – acting collectively as a security feature against such shootings – but that the feature turned out to be a flaw that prevented law enforcement from getting into the building.
A school security official had to go through a very large key ring in order to find the right one to unlock the door, he said.
"I understand that there is this door issue, but this classroom had windows, they could have broken out those windows. They could have blown through that door. We'll never find out the true answers here as long as this investigation remains shrouded," he said.
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A police officer comforts family members at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday, May 26. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
"We know that there were 13 [Texas State] DPS Troopers in that hallway. Why didn't they go in? They were the superior force – For a whole week, this whole country was told the local cop was the incident commander. And a week later, we're told that he didn't have a radio. So how in the world that he communicate to anybody that he's the incident commander?"
"There are so many problems in this investigation: This is the worst law enforcement fiasco since George Floyd."
Gutierrez said law enforcement officials are trying to "hide behind some loophole" in purportedly keeping the investigational ruminations a secret.
That proverbial loophole is an exception in an existing state public information law which allows officials to block the release of information if a suspect is deceased. Some state lawmakers are reportedly trying to undo the exception in the wake of the Uvalde shooting.
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