Uvalde families after school board meeting on terminating school police chief
Residents of Uvalde, Texas, speak to Fox News after the school board fired police chief Pete Arredondo following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Families of the victims killed in the Uvalde school massacre earlier this year confronted the Texas Department of Public Safety director during a meeting on Thursday morning over law enforcement’s response to the shooting and called for his resignation.
Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez joined several family members who spoke before the Texas Public Safety Commission and questioned Texas DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw over why he has yet to resign after saying he would step down if DPS was found to have failed the community.
While McCraw said the overall law enforcement response was an "abject failure, period," he said that DPS "did not fail the community."
"If DPS as an institution failed the families, failed the school or failed the community of Uvalde, then absolutely, I need to go," McCraw said. "But I can tell you this right now, DPS as an institution, ok, right now, did not fail the community, plain and simple."
UVALDE SCHOOL DISTRICT FIRES NEW POLICE OFFICER WHO IS UNDER INVESTIGATION BY TEXAS DPS
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw told families that the DPS "did not fail the community" of Uvalde during a Public Safety Commission meeting on Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Brett Cross, the uncle of Uziyah Garcia, one of the 19 fourth-grade students killed in the shooting, told McCraw he should step down.
"If you are a man of your word, then you would retire," Cross said after McCraw’s statement.
McCraw told the commission that there were "multiple points of failure" regarding the shooting and law enforcement response. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
McCraw had previously stated to news outlets that he would resign if it was found that the DPS had any culpability regarding the shooting response.
The massacre happened on May 24 when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and killed 19 fourth-grade students and two teachers. Responding officers allowed the shooter to remain inside the classroom for more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman.
"What were they afraid of?" asked Jesse Rizo, the uncle of Jacklyn Cazares, referring to how dozens of officers from multiple agencies waited in the hallway outside the classroom.
Rizo also accused the DPS of spreading misinformation during the early days of the investigation.
"You basically lit a match and set the town on fire," he said to McCraw before telling him to resign.
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Months after the shooting, an investigation into law enforcement’s response is ongoing.
McCraw said that the Texas Rangers’ investigation into the shooting will be completed by the end of the year. He added that some autopsies are still being conducted.
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