The San Antonio Democrat said he plans to hold one news conference over the next three…
Exactly eight months after the May 24 Uvalde school massacre, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez joined families of victims Tuesday to push for a number of bills that he says would bring accountability and prevent future tragedies.
“We’re not asking for the moon and the stars,” said Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat. “We’re asking for common sense solutions. These families are broken, they’re mad as hell, they’re angry. There’s not one damn thing that anybody’s going to be able to do in there that’s going to bring their children back, but under no uncertain terms should we allow their children’s deaths to be in vain.”
Gutierrez said he plans to hold similar news conference each week with victims’ families over the next three weeks on bills relating to state spending to prevent gun violence, emergency management and preparedness and gun safety.
The Texas Department of Public Safety continues to investigate why about two dozen law enforcement officers waited outside two classrooms for nearly an hour rather than breaking in and confronting the shooter, as they are trained to do.
THIS MONTH: Texas Ranger fired over his response to Uvalde mass shooting
Yet officials have still not released a final report nor have they disciplined all of those whose actions or inactions may have cost lives. A related investigation by the Department of Justice is also unfinished.
“Nobody took responsibility,” Gutierrez said. “We were led to believe by DPS that this was the work of a local cafeteria school cop. And then we were told it was a Uvalde cop who could have killed him, and that wasn’t even true. They knew it was a lie.
“Over and over and over, we have been faced with a rampant amount of lies, and misunderstandings about what happened that day.”
Meanwhile, some testimony and individual discipline cases have trickled into the public record. The state’s head of police, DPS Director Steve McCraw, has said he would quit if his own agency is found responsible, yet he’s held onto his position even after it was clear 91 of his troopers were on-scene.
So far, the public has not been presented with a researched, measured account of exactly what went wrong the day that 19 students and two teachers were brutally killed, nor an account of the culpability of local and state officials.
The most comprehensive report to date came from a special committee of the Texas House this summer that in 77 pages discussed in what ways safety preparations and law enforcement’s response fell short and why; it also detailed what was known about the shooter prior to the attack and how he obtained his weapons.
REPORT: Read all 77 pages of the Texas House investigative committee’s report
Earlier this month, McCraw’s agency moved to fire a Texas Ranger for failing to confront the shooter. In that case, McCraw told the Ranger that he’d erred in deeming the a barricaded subject, and that he should have considered the 18-year-old an active shooter.
Uvalde’s District Attorney Christina Mitchell, who has received an initial report from DPS, has said she does not expect the complete investigation from the state until any sooner than the spring, saying these reports can take longer than a year to finish.
A spokesperson for DPS said the department has no plans to publicly release the report until Mitchell has an opportunity to “thoroughly review it and make prosecutorial decisions.”
Gutierrez had already filed several bills related to Uvalde — he filed another four Tuesday — but he said there are about 20 he plans to file in total, many of which he said have bipartisan support.
The latest bills would create a state compensation fund for school violence victims and end qualified immunity for police. They would also empower the families to launch lawsuits against the state and other government entities for negligence and pressure Congress to amend a federal law that bars many civil suits against gun manufacturers.
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Bills that Gutierrez has already filed would create extreme risk protection orders, raise the minimum age to purchase military-style semi-automatic rifles and create a Uvalde-specific victims compensation fund.
“This has to be the session where we do something,” Gutierrez said. “It cannot be the session where we have roundtables. It cannot be the session where we have discussions. It has to be the best session where we do something on gun safety.”
RELATED: ‘I’m not going to let this die’: Texas senator vows to create $300 million fund for Uvalde victims
Family members of victims at a news conference at the Capitol, during emotional speeches, pleaded for more accountability and stricter gun laws.
Felicha Martinez, mother of 10-year-old Xavier Lopez, described how for the first time this year on the holidays, her family did not participate in the usual joyous tradition of opening gifts together. Instead, they spent the morning “locked in our room, crying, full of hurt and anger, because the one person that was the loudest during Christmas was no longer here.”
“Just to make a buck is all these gun people want, but they don’t want to be held accountable if someone’s life was taken, especially a child,” Martinez said about manufacturers, later adding about laws protecting police from legal liability: “I believe cops should be sued because on the 24th, they did not do their job.”
Velma Duran, a former teacher at Robb Elementary in Uvalde and the sister of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers killed in the massacre, said she read an article Monday on the Legislature’s desired uses for spending the state’s surplus and said it “broke me” to see the word gun mentioned only once. Garcia’s husband, Joe, died two days after her from a heart attack. Family members say his true cause of death was a broken heart.
“When will it be enough bloodshed?” Duran said, appealing directly to lawmakers. “Are you waiting for it to happen to you or your family before you stop to think about your gross negligence? I urge you to take the time to visualize our loved ones, pieced back together on a coffin, knowing that their last breath on Earth was the most frightening event in their lives.
“How do you sit in your high-powered offices and not want to do anything to put an end to this violence?”
edward.mckinley@chron.com
taylor.goldenstein@chron.com