Uvalde鈥檚 mayor on Friday denied a recent report that said a city police officer had an opportunity to shoot the 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers inside Robb Elementary School last month before the gunman entered the school building.
In a written statement, Mayor Don McLaughlin said that no Uvalde police officer saw the shooter before he entered the school and 鈥渘o Uvalde police officers had any opportunity to take a shot at the gunman.鈥�
鈥淎 Uvalde Police Department officer saw someone outside but was unsure of who he saw and observed children in the area as well,鈥� McLaughlin said. 鈥淯ltimately, it was a coach with children on the playground, not the shooter.鈥�
McLaughlin鈥檚 comments come two days after analyzing the law enforcement response to the shooting. The at the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University in San Marcos said a Uvalde police officer had the gunman in his crosshairs and asked a supervisor for permission to shoot 鈥� but the supervisor did not hear the request or responded too late.
ALERRT, created in 2002 to address the need for active-shooter response training for first responders, based its report on an hourlong briefing on June 1 by an 鈥渋nvestigating officer with knowledge of the event and investigative details,鈥� the report said.
The report said that ALERRT staff also reviewed surveillance footage from the school, Google Maps and a brief cellphone video.
The report does not identify which agency the investigator works for. The report does say that the Texas Department of Public Safety reached out to ALERRT soon after the attack 鈥渢o assess the law enforcement response.鈥�
An official at ALERRT declined to comment Friday. DPS didn鈥檛 immediately respond to an email from The Texas Tribune seeking comment.
McLaughlin鈥檚 statement is the latest in an ongoing public feud between the city and DPS. Last month, DPS Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee that the Uvalde police response to the shooting was an and blamed the indecisiveness of the on-scene commander, who 鈥渄ecided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.鈥�
Law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting 鈥� particularly Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo, who recently resigned as a City Council member 鈥� have faced intense criticism for waiting more than an hour before entering the classrooms and killing the gunman.
McLaughlin, meanwhile, has accused state authorities of selectively releasing information to scapegoat local law enforcement and intentionally leaving out details about the state鈥檚 response to the massacre.
鈥淢cCraw has continued to, whether you want to call it, lie, leak 鈥� mislead or misstate information in order to distance his own troopers and rangers from the response,鈥� after McCraw鈥檚 testimony.
The mayor said Friday that dozens of DPS troopers were at the school by the time the gunman entered the classroom where the students and teachers were killed.
鈥淚鈥檝e said it once and will say it again, the premature release of piecemeal information or anything related to the May 24 Department of Public Safety (DPS)/Texas Rangers investigation is a disservice to families who lost children or parents because the true facts need to come out once all investigations/reviews, which the City expects will be thorough and fair, are complete,鈥� the mayor said. 鈥淚 firmly believe it is imperative the families are provided with complete, unbiased, and comprehensive information about this incident.鈥�
DPS has also said the Texas Rangers are conducting an investigation into the shooting. The FBI and a legislative committee are also conducting their own investigations.
State Rep. , R-Lubbock, who chairs the legislative committee leading the inquiry, said he requested from DPS a 77-minute video showing police in a hallway outside the classroom where the shooting happened so that it can be made public and part of the committee鈥檚 preliminary report.
In response to his request, a DPS official responded that the agency didn鈥檛 oppose releasing the video and felt that its release would 鈥渁ssist us in providing as much transparency as possible to the public without interfering with the investigation,鈥� but Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee 鈥渉as objected to releasing the video and has instructed us not to do so.鈥�
DPS said it was deferring to Busbee鈥檚 judgment because she is the person who has authority to determine whether any criminal charges result from the massacre.
Busbee has also been at the center of a dispute over a. After the shooting, Gov. announced that the state would launch the Uvalde Together Resilience Center, then gave control of it to the local district attorney after consulting with local officials.
This week, McLaughlin and state Sen. , a Democrat who represents Uvalde, asked Abbott in a letter to to the Texas Division of Emergency Management because they believe Busbee鈥檚 office isn't adequately helping families that need and request assistance.
