Crime & JusticeUvalde Shooting

‘I was misled,’ says Texas governor on Uvalde school carnage

Uvalde, US, May 27 (EFE).- Texas Governor Greg Abbott Friday said law enforcement officers misled him about the Uvalde school massacre amid growing public anger against how authorities handled the situation as a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in the carnage that lasted for more than an hour.

“I was misled. I am livid about what happened,” Abbott told reporters in Uvalde about the mayhem Tuesday when Salvador Ramos, 18, went on a rampage at Robb Elementary School before cops gunned him down.

“I was on this very stage two days ago and I was telling the public the information that had been told to me in the room a few yards behind where we are located right now,” the governor said.

He said he took down hand notes “in detail about what everybody in that room told me in sequential order about what happened.”

Abbot said what he told the public that day “was the recitation of what people told me in that room. It was law enforcement officials or non law enforcement officials whatever the case may be.”

Police and civil authorities in Texas have come under sharp scrutiny for their response to the situation.

Criticism that the police acted slowly or inappropriately has grown on social media and among some Uvalde residents, especially after authorities confirmed that the attacker spent up to an hour barricaded in a classroom before being shot dead by the officers.

The authorities had to get a key to open the door to confront Ramos, triggering questions about why they did not break it down.

The police admitted on Friday that it was a mistake not to enter the classroom.

Police initially said the shooter was wearing body armor, and an armed guard had confronted him. However, it turned out that the assertions were untrue.

Several video clips circulating on the internet show the parents and relatives of the victims in the vicinity of the school, screaming and confronting the police for – in their opinion – not intervening while the shooting was underway inside.

The governor had earlier defended the actions of the police and other local officials, saying they prevented the situation from being far worse.

“The information I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate. And I am absolutely livid about that,” Abbot said.

He said he expected the law enforcement leaders, including the Texas Rangers and the FBI, to “get to the bottom of every fact with absolute certainty” in their probe.

“There are people who deserve answers the most. And those are the families whose lives have been destroyed. They need answers that are accurate and it is inexcusable that they may have suffered from any inaccurate information whatsoever,” he said. EFE

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