Texas Democrat says parent told student likely bled out waiting for police after school shooting

Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D) said on Sunday that first responders told the mother of one of the victims of last week’s elementary school shooting that her daughter might have lived if police had breached the classroom earlier.

Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, told co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “many things” went wrong in law enforcement’s response to the massacre, which left 19 students and two teachers dead.

Local police have faced scrutiny in recent days for their handling of the shooting, with several officers entering the elementary school but not engaging the gunman even as students inside called 911 pleading for help.

“Her child had been shot by one bullet through the back through the kidney area,” Gutierrez said. 

“The first responder that they eventually talked to said that their child likely bled out. In that span of 30 or 40 minutes extra, that little girl might have lived. So, absolutely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of these children as well,” he added.

State law enforcement officials now say local police were wrong to have waited to engage with the gunman.

Gutierrez said he had “significant concerns” about “operational control” during law enforcement’s response in Uvalde, adding that federal Customs and Border Protection agents eventually made the decision to enter the classroom out of “frustration.”

But Gutierrez said his concerns extended beyond decisions made by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (ISD) chief, who officials said was the on-site commander who decided not to breach the classroom where the shooter was earlier.

“It is not fair to put it on the local ISD cop,” Gutierrez said. “At the end of the day, everybody failed here. We failed these children. We even failed them in the Texas legislature.”

Gutierrez had interrupted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) at a press conference on Friday, asking him to call a special session of the state legislature to address the shooting.