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On May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, in a mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School, 21 people, including 19 children, were killed. The grieving community, which is far from being healed, is yet to receive any answers to their questions
In an interview with CNN, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin accused the Texas Department of Public Safety of a cover-up investigation regarding the school shooting at Robb Elementary School. He claimed that the Texas DPS was either lying or leaking information.
This comes hours after Texas DPS Director Col. Steve McCraw testified before a special Texas Senate committee on Wednesday morning. With regards to Uvalde Chief Pete Arrendondo, McCraw said:
"The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children."
Mayor Don McLaughlin said that he could not get information from the Texas DPS regarding the shooting, which left multiple families grieving. Instead of receiving information directly from the department, his knowledge of the situation, too, is limited to public conferences. He added:
"We kept quiet at the request because we thought we were doing an investigation and doing the right thing but yet, they can go to Austin and have public deals and talk about different things and don’t share anything with this city.”
Uvalde school shooting: No answers even after a month
Expressing his doubts about the reliability of the Texas Department of Public Safety, McLaughlin said that he was not "100%" confident in the way they were handling the situation.
He was unsure of which version of the horrific incident to believe. Claiming himself free of any political allegiance, he accused the Texas DPS of "lying" of withholding information from the grieving community and "misleading" them. He further stated:
"Col. McCraw has an agenda and has not to present a full report and to give factual answers to the families of this community. The petty infighting to make headlines and politically motivated scapegoating is not helping anyone. It is dividing a community and further frustrating grieving families."
The mayor also turned towards Governor Abbott, saying that the grieving families wished to talk to him about the shooting. While it is unclear when Governor Abbott will return to Uvalde, his press secretary asked for the mayor's cooperation in working with the State.
