‘I Will Never Forgive Them’: Uvalde Teacher Who Was Wounded in Shooting Blasts Police as ‘Cowards’
Arnulfo Reyes, a teacher at Robb Elementary School, detailed his horrifying experience during the recent shooting that claimed 20 lives and blasted police who initially responded to the scene as “cowards.”
Reyes was shot multiple times and the 11 students in his classroom were all killed by the gunman, who was confronted by authorities approximately an hour after he entered the school and barricaded himself in a classroom. Texas Department of Safety head Steve McCraw has since said the on scene commander determined the situation was not an active shooter scenario once the shooter was barricaded. This is despite the fact that he was still firing and students from inside the classroom were calling 911, seeking help. McCraw called the decision made at the scene “wrong.”
“They’re cowards,” Reyes told ABC News anchor Amy Robach in an interview aired Tuesday on Good Morning America. “They sit there and did nothing for our community. They took a long time to go in … I will never forgive them.”
Reyes recounted telling his students to lay under a table and pretend to be asleep.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s go ahead and get under the table,” he remembers telling his students. “Get under the table and act like you’re asleep.”
It was after this that Reyes said he saw the gunman enter the adjoining classrooms and he opened fire. Reyes claims he could hear a student in the next classroom yelling for police, telling them they were in the room.
“One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, ‘Officer, we’re in here. We’re in here,’ but they had already left,” he said.
He said he felt “abandoned” by the police posted up outside. Some reports have even indicated authorities outside the school attempted to prevent parents from entering and getting their own children.
“After everything, I get more angry because you have a bulletproof vest. I had nothing. I had nothing. You’re supposed to protect and serve. There is no excuse for their actions. And I will never forgive them. I will never forgive them.”
Watch above via ABC.
