2023-08-31 23:38:15
Some people visit a monument in memory of the 21 victims of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas (REUTERS / Evan Garcia)
Uvalde (Texas) Mayor Don McLaughlin accused District Attorney Christina Mitchell of covering up information about the May 24, 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School, which left two teachers and 19 students dead. In addition, she demanded her resignation.
In a letter, McLaughlin said Mitchell is blocking the city’s investigation into the killing by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Mitchell, prosecutor for the 38th judicial district, which includes Uvalde, is leading the criminal investigation into the shooting and the police response to it. As he indicated, he is still collecting evidence, and stated that he intends to present his results towards the end of the year.
In his letter, McLaughlin explained that the city hired outside investigator Jesse Prado to look into the controversial actions of local police on the day of the shooting.
The initial response to the shooting has been widely criticized because local agents waited in a hallway instead of storming into the classroom where Ramos was, who was eventually shot dead by federal agents.
The mayor of Uvalde (Texas), Don McLaughlin (REUTERS / Veronica G. Cardenas)
The Republican mayor said he believes Mitchell has withheld information requested by Prado because his own lead investigator, Shayne Gilland, was one of the officers at the school during the shooting.
McLaughlin made the accusation after the city filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking access to records related to the shooting.
“It has been 15 months since this tragedy, and I feel that the families and our community deserve answers,” the mayor said in a statement attached to the lawsuit, adding that Mitchell “has been involved in a cover-up in connection with the investigation of the City on the Robb School Tragedy.
On Monday, August 7, a 17-year-old minor, a relative of Ramos, was arrested for threatening to shoot at a school in San Antonio (Texas), according to local media reports. Nathan Cruz was arrested after he allegedly said that he planned to “do the same thing” as his cousin.
The young man was investigated after San Antonio Police responded to a call from a relative of Cruz asking for mental health help for the minor.
The relative told police that they live across the street from an elementary school and that Cruz had indicated that “school will start soon,” according to court documents cited by the television station.
In addition to the threat against the school, Cruz reportedly tried to buy an AR-15 type rifle and also threatened a family member, the indictment states.
The Uvalde massacre left 19 children dead (REUTERS/Marco Bello)
The juvenile was arrested for making a terroristic threat to the public, considered a felony, and was booked into the Bexar County Jail.
The Uvalde massacre sparked a series of protests over the authorities’ lack of reaction to arrest Ramos, an 18-year-old who had legally purchased two assault rifles a few days before the shooting.
An AR-15, the most popular in the country, was the one Ramos used after entering through an unlocked back door and barricading himself for 77 minutes in rooms 111 and 112 at Robb Elementary.
The Uvalde shooting is the second deadliest at a school in the last decade, after the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 26 people lost their lives.
Uvalde is located 135 kilometers west of San Antonio.
(With information from EFE)
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