Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin believes there is a cover-up in the investigation of the school massacre. "I don't trust, 100%, the DPS (Texas Department of Public Safety) because I believe there is a cover-up," said the official in relation to the event in which 19 children and two adults lost their lives at Robb Elementary School in May of this year.
Don McLaughlin accused Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw of "perhaps covering up for his agencies" regarding the events that led armed officers to wait outside a classroom for more than an hour before confronting the attacker. The information was revealed to CNN en Español.
"The police response was a failure."
The official Don McLaughlin further expressed to the Texas Senate that the police response was a "dismal failure". He held school police chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo responsible for it and reiterated that he does not feel that the full story of the May 24 massacre is coming to light.
Regarding the Texas Department of Public Safety, he emphasized that "all the agencies in that hallway are going to have to share the blame," although he qualified this by explaining that he distrusts only the higher-ups.
The day of the massacre
After shooting and wounding his grandmother with a handgun, 18-year-old Rolando Ramos went to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and fired outside. He finally entered the building, barricaded himself in a room with an AR-15 style rifle and killed 21 people. He stayed there for more than an hour until the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit discharged him.
McLaughlin argued that he lost confidence in the investigations because information from the Texas Department of Public Safety changed "so many times and when we asked questions, we weren't getting answers". He asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the work done by law enforcement in the school massacre event.
