“We have nothing left but to fight for our children”: the painful reaction of the parents of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting

“I hope the failures end today… and that local officials do what was not done that day: do what is right for the victims and survivors of Robb Elementary.” The words of Kimberly Mata-Rubio, mother of 10-year-old Lexi, one of the fatalities in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, echo the feelings of countless families.

With tears, broken voices, pain and outrage, the relatives of the 19 children and two teachers demand justice. They say they won’t sit back.

Mata-Rubio said, according to the EFE agency, that the affected families hope that, after learning of the police misconduct report, there will be “dismissals” and “criminal charges” on the day of the bloody shooting.

On Thursday, January 18, 2024, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland denounced the “failure” of the local police response to Robb Elementary School, saying it was a matter of “lack of leadership, training and failed policies.”

The series of failures quickly became apparent. One mother stated: “The police did nothing” The woman said this when describing the situation she saw when she arrived at the school. He added that the troops were “standing outside the fence, they were not going to go in or run anywhere.”

Even Texas Governor Greg Abbott changed his opinion about the officials responsible for the situation, El Universo published in May 2022. First, he praised the officers. He then described himself as “enraged” and described the police officers who took a long time to respond to the dramatic situation in the classrooms as negligent.

On May 24, 2022, the death was surprising in the worst way. At Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos burst in with an assault rifle and killed 19 schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 11.

Meanwhile, the uniformed officers were slow to decide what to do. In one classroom, a teacher stood as a human shield, El Universo reported.

A brave girl tried to call 911 for help and a teacher used her body as a shield for her students before she was killed in the Texas shooting that left 22 victims

The five police mistakes in the Uvalde school shooting

Communication with the families of the victims of the Uvalde massacre was “chaotic” and “painful,” summarizes Noticias Telemundo.

The Justice Department investigation, reported in Univisión, “made it clear that the problem was not the response time to 911 calls, but rather the actions authorities took once they got to the school.”

“Help, help, help. “I don’t want to die… there are a lot of bodies,” thus – with the transcript of a child’s call to 911 – “begins the heartbreaking report released Thursday by the Department of Justice on the mistakes committed by the law. enforcement during the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.”

“Power, Uvalde!”: A year after the school massacre, the parents of the 19 murdered children still do not understand what happened to the police in Texas, while the shootings in the United States do not stop

1. Quick response, but inefficient

The first police officers arrived three minutes after Salvador Ramos. “They heard from the corridors that the subject was actively filming in rooms 111 and 112.

They ran to the classrooms, but several officers were hit by shrapnel. As a result, the officers retreated and “did not return to the doors until more than an hour later,” the report points out.

2. The incident was handled as a barricade and not an active shooting

“It was announced on the radio that there was active shooting at the school at the beginning of the incident, but then there was talk of ‘containment’ and ‘barricade’.

In the case of the Uvalde shooting, “the majority of officers lacked advanced and specialized training and preparation to deal with these types of situations,” says the report, quoted in Univisión.

3. Lack of leadership

“At no time was there a common operational plan among the officers on the scene.”

376 officers went to the scene (…) but for 41 minutes there was no clear action to stop the gunman who was still trapped with 33 victims.

Salvador Ramos: The young man of Hispanic origin responsible for the bloody shooting at the Uvalde school in Texas

4. Poor communication between law enforcement agencies

According to the Univision report, the report indicates that information passed between officers, both by radio and word of mouth, was often false or uncorroborated at various times, causing further confusion and wasted time .

5. Lack of sensitivity towards the families of the victims

“Families did not receive transparent, informed or compassionate communications.”

The pain of the families of the victims of Uvalde

Vincent Salazar, grandfather of one of the victims (an 11-year-old granddaughter), recalled for Telemundo that he approached an officer upon arriving near the school.

“I asked him, ‘Are any children hurt?’ and he answered me, ‘No one was hurt,'” Salazar told the outlet.

‘He lied to us’ he said, and “it was the only information we received.” That day, his family waited for at least twelve hours without official details.

“We have nothing left but to fight for them, for our children. Now we are their voice and that is why we continue,” said a mother, visibly affected.

Brett Cross, guardian of Uziyah García, another of the victims, denounced that the shooting has divided the community and that some “don’t want to believe that the people they grew up with They have failed our children.“, reports EFE.

Josh Koskoff, a lawyer representing the 17 families, said according to EFE that the report will help them continue their legal battle for justice.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio emphasized through tears, “I hope our state and federal government enact sensible gun laws because the tragedy at Robb Elementary School started the day an 18-year-old was allowed to buy an AR-15.”

(JO)