Texas
As officials push for answers in Uvalde school shooting nearly 2 weeks after the massacre, families are still burying their children
Sporting a t-shirt emblazoned with a photograph of Jacklyn, Jacinto Cazares instructed CNN the household had a “highly effective and exquisite service” for her Friday.
Cazares stated he needs to recollect Jacklyn as a full of life lady and calls her his angel. “She would do something for anyone,” he stated shortly after Jacklyn’s killing. “And to me, she’s a little bit firecracker.”
Lots of the pals Jacklyn made TikTok movies with had been additionally killed within the capturing, Cazares stated, together with her cousin Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez.
For now, Cazares is targeted on honoring Jacklyn’s reminiscence, however as soon as all of the victims are laid to relaxation, he’ll struggle for justice for his daughter and accountability for the police response to the capturing, he stated.
The most recent account from authorities signifies the shooter trapped the 21 victims with him inside two adjoining school rooms for greater than an hour as officers gathered within the hallway, regardless of repeated 911 calls from college students asking for assist.
“No person’s been disciplined for this. There’s been no repercussions in any respect for what many have described as one of many worst legislation enforcement failures in American historical past,” US Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, instructed CNN Saturday. “All of us, the American folks, have seen the story and the model of the story change 4 or 5 instances now.”
Response to capturing has been ‘disturbing,’ congressman says
Frustration grew even deeper Friday night time when the Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District held its first board assembly because the capturing.
Dad and mom had been anxious to listen to about security measures the district would implement within the wake of the capturing, however the assembly ended with no clear safety plans.
Throughout the assembly, Superintendent Hal Harrell reiterated college students wouldn’t be returning to Robb Elementary. After that, faculty board members went right into a prolonged closed-door session that was scheduled to contain the approval of personnel employments, assignments, suspensions and terminations.
It is “odd and disturbing that the varsity board did not take any motion to a minimum of put the chief on administrative depart whereas every thing is sorted out,” Castro instructed CNN.
Angela Turner stated she’s a mom of 5 who misplaced her niece within the capturing.
“We wish solutions to the place the safety goes to happen. This was all a joke,” she instructed reporters after the varsity board assembly. “I am so dissatisfied in our college district.”
Turner insisted she is not going to ship her youngsters to highschool until they really feel protected, including that her 6-year-old youngster instructed her, “I do not need to go to highschool. Why? To be shot?”
“These folks is not going to have a job if we stand collectively, and we don’t let our youngsters go right here,” she stated as she pointed to a vacant faculty board podium.
Congressman: ‘It is clear that the state and native officers now aren’t cooperating’
Additional complicating the problem is how details about the investigation is being dealt with. Based on Castro, officers at varied ranges of presidency aren’t working successfully collectively.
The FBI has been partnering with state and native officers on the investigation, Castro stated, however the bureau instructed him “it was type of break up up.”
“It is clear that the state and native officers now aren’t cooperating with one another,” Castro stated, noting he is requested the FBI to take the total lead on the investigation.
“After I was in Uvalde speaking to the households, what they need most of all are solutions about why this occurred to their youngsters of their city,” Castro stated.
The Justice Division stated final week it might conduct a evaluate of the legislation enforcement response to the capturing on the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin.
And the Uvalde County district lawyer has stated the workplace will weigh in on legal expenses associated to the capturing after a evaluate of the Texas Rangers’ report on the capturing.
The Mixed Legislation Enforcement Associations of Texas, the state’s largest police union, referred to as on its members this week to cooperate absolutely with the investigation.
“There was quite a lot of false and deceptive info within the aftermath of this tragedy,” the union stated in a press release. “Among the info got here from the very highest ranges of presidency and legislation enforcement. Sources that Texans as soon as noticed as iron-clad and fully dependable have now been confirmed false,” it stated.
CNN’s Camila Bernal, Meridith Edwards, Amanda Watts, Aaron Cooper, Paradise Afshar and Rosa Flores contributed to this report.