“I’m not 100 percent confident in DPS because I think it’s a cover-up,” he said of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the lead agency tasked with identifying what led to well-armed officers waiting outside a classroom for more from an hour before they attacked the shooter.
“McGraw is covering up maybe his agencies,” McLaughlin continued in his sharpest attack on Col. Stephen McCraw, DPS director.
But McLaughlin told CNN on Tuesday that he doesn’t think the full story of the May 24 massacre is coming out, in part because the Texas DPS has not been transparent.
“Every agency in that corridor will have to share the blame,” he said. Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies gathered inside and outside the school before the gunman was challenged and killed.
McLaughlin said in an interview, “At this point, I don’t know what to believe and what not to believe.”
And while he said he trusts the DPS people who serve his community, he no longer trusts senior management.
CNN reached out to DPS for comment and was referred to District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busby of the 38th Judicial District for details. She is the official who ordered an investigation by the Texas Rangers Division of DPS, which is ongoing.
DPS spokeswoman Erica Beltran did say, “The Texas Department of Public Safety is committed to working with multiple law enforcement agencies to get the answers we’re all looking for.”
McLaughlin said he hasn’t had a briefing “from anybody” since the day after the shooting, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others traveled to Uvalde to be told what happened.
Still, he said, key facts in the timeline don’t add up — a timeline that has already been massively altered since the hours after the attack, when law enforcement was praised by Abbott and others.
“I lost confidence because the narrative was changed by DPS so many times and when we asked questions, we didn’t get answers.”
McLaughlin asked the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the law enforcement response, and that work has already begun.
He has repeatedly stated that his goal was only to find out the truth about the families of the two teachers and the 19 children, ages 9 to 11, who were shot that day.
And he urged Abbott to return to Uvalde to speak to the bereaved relatives.
“These families want to talk to the governor and he needs to come see them,” he said, adding that he was writing to Abbott to make the request and reiterate his concerns about the investigation.
Rene Eze, Abbott’s press secretary, did not respond to a specific question about when the Texas governor would return to Uvalde, but said he “will continue to visit the Uvalde community and local leaders.”
She said the victims’ families and the public “deserve the full truth about what happened on that tragic day” and continued, “Governor Abbott and his cabinet will continue to work with state and local leaders like Mayor McLaughlin to support the community of Uvalde and to provide all available resources while they are being treated.”
Eze also highlighted what Abbott has already done, including issuing a disaster declaration and committing money and other resources to make schools safer and support mental health.
McLaughlin was with Abbott, U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and other officials when DPS gave his first account of what happened before Abbott held a news conference.
He said Arredondo, the school police chief later accused of inaction, was also there, standing against the wall. He didn’t speak and no one asked him a question, the mayor said. McLaughlin first gained national attention at the first news briefing after the shooting when he shouted profanities at Beto O’Rourke as the former presidential and Senate candidate, now running for governor, tried to confront Abbott.
He said he didn’t regret it because there were grieving families in the audience.
“This was not the place for me to go upstairs and start shouting. It made me angry because it wasn’t the place or the time,” he said.
McLaughlin said he opposes policies from either side that end up in a situation where families are still waiting for answers.
He decried how everything is being divided along party political lines and wished that some debates could be had without considering whether it was the Republican or Democratic way. He said he supports raising the age when someone can buy an assault rifle from 18 to 21, as well as stronger background checks for younger buyers. He said he bought an assault rifle when he thought they were going to be banned, but never used it.
McLaughlin himself has been questioned about how open he was.
He said he decided to have Arredondo sworn in behind closed doors to a city council position he won before the shooting because he didn’t want to have a fancy ceremony so soon after the deaths of so many children. Arredondo has since resigned from that position and has separately been placed on administrative leave from his job.
For now, McLaughlin is considering how students will respond in the new school year that starts next month.
Uvalde is near the Mexican border and said there are frequent school lockdowns as immigration and other law enforcement operations take place.
“How are we going to feel on August 15 when we go to school and have these activities in town?” he asked.
“How will these families feel? How will these children feel? How will those parents feel?’
McLaughlin, whose term as mayor ends in 2024, said his focus right now is on the families of those who didn’t make it home from Robb Elementary.
“I want these families to have closure. Nothing will ever heal the pain that they have, will never heal that pain, but they need to know what happened and they need to know the truth.”
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