Texas State Senator Says Local Authorities No Longer Answering His Questions About Uvalde Shooting

Zachary LeemanJun 3rd, 2022, 12:21 pm
 

Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez (D) revealed that all communications from local authorities regarding the Uvalde elementary school shooting have been cut off and his own questions are going unanswered. Everything is now going through the district attorney’s office, the lawmaker told MSNBC on Friday.

Many of the details to come out about the heavily-scrutinized police response to the shooting that left more than 20 dead have come from Gutierrez, who said he has been running his own investigation as he has seen conflicting statements from authorities. He revealed this week, for instance, that he was told Pedro Arredondo, the school district’s police chief who led the law enforcement response, was not receiving the 911 calls from students being made from inside the classroom with the gunman while police waited as a result of Arredondo’s decision that it was no longer an active shooter situation.

“So as of yesterday, the district attorney basically put a stop to any further reporting unless it goes out of her office. And so my communications with [Texas Department of Safety Director Steve] McCraw on these issues with regard to this investigation have stopped. He’s been ordered by the district attorney,” Gutierrez told MSNBC.

The state senator did say it was “communicated” to him that the district attorney’s office may be presenting “something” to a grand jury after their investigation, though he did not specify beyond that.

Gutierrez said the last questions he was trying to get answered were the procedures around the 911 calls, as well as finding out the identity of the officers who were reportedly staged outside the classroom. McCraw said officers were staged outside the barricaded door, but this would also likely mean they were there while the gunman was firing on students during the long gap before a breach was actually made.

“I think that people were getting those 911 dispatches,” Gutierrez said. “But, again, I don’t get that clarity anymore because this investigation has now been taken over by the district attorney who I guess is going to present something to a grand jury. I don’t know. That’s what was communicated to me.”

In a tweet, Gutierrez claimed District Attorney Christina Busbee specifically ordered reports not be sent to him.

Gutierrez called the response to the shooting an “indictment on this entire system” and earlier in the interview described the effects the tragedy has personally had on him, saying he’s likely experiencing “survivor’s guilt.”

“I feel like we all failed these children,” he said. “We all failed these children. Maybe we didn’t yell enough in the legislature after the first six massacres that happened. It’s just been hard. I’ll tell you, I wake up in the morning crying, I go to bed, and I find myself crying. It’s just, it’s really difficult. It’s really difficult.”

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Zachary Leeman

Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.