It's been almost two years since the Uvalde shooting 鈥� and three mothers who lost their daughters say they鈥檙e still waiting for justice.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, Gloria Cazares and Veronica Mata founded to advocate for gun reforms after their daughters were killed during the shooting at Robb Elementary in May 2022. The three women spoke at a panel at Southern Methodist University on Thursday for university鈥檚 Human Rights Fest.
Almost 400 law enforcement agencies at the state, local and federal level responded to the school shooting. But they waited 77 minutes to take out the shooter. Cazares said her daughter, Jackie, might still be alive if law enforcement took swifter action that day.
鈥淲e need some kind of justice,鈥� Cazares said. 鈥淭hey need to be held accountable.鈥�
A of the shooting that was released earlier this year found policy and leadership failures in law enforcement's response to the shooting. Attorney General Merrick Garland called officials鈥� response a failure in a statement released with the report.
The city of Uvalde's found the officers acted in good faith. It also exonerated Mariano Pargas, who was the acting Uvalde police chief at the time of the shooting.
Mata called the report a slap in the face. She said the people in power in Uvalde don't want to face what happened.
鈥淭hey know what鈥檚 right,鈥� Mata said. 鈥淭hey know that some of those police officers didn鈥檛 do what they were supposed to do.鈥�
A Uvalde County is set to determine if officers who were at the shooting should be charged.
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Caroline Love is a Corps member for 四虎影院.
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