Home US Insult to injury: Disgraceful moment police detain grieving father Uvalde after hearing into their mass shootings

Insult to injury: Disgraceful moment police detain grieving father Uvalde after hearing into their mass shootings

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Brett Cross, the guardian of a child killed in the Uvalde school massacre, was forced to the ground by police after being escorted from a hearing into the 2022 shooting.

A grieving Uvalde father was tackled by police and pinned to the ground as he was escorted from a court hearing into the 2022 school shooting.

Brett Cross and his wife Nikki were at the courthouse Thursday to attend the hearing of former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales, who are charged with child endangerment for their response on the shooting at Robb Elementary.

Footage of the incident shows Cross telling officers to “get rid of him” as they lead him out of the courthouse and then pin him to the ground.

His wife then tries to intervene and is surrounded by police before falling backwards as four officers continue to detain Cross.

Cross is eventually seen back on his feet and continues to argue with the police.

He was the legal guardian of Uziyah “Uzi” Garcia, one of the 19 children killed in the Texas massacre.

‘We weren’t even allowed into the courtroom. My wife and I were attacked by the police,” Cross later said on X.

“We are currently at the doctors getting our wounds dressed.”

Brett Cross, the guardian of a child killed in the Uvalde school massacre, was forced to the ground by police after being escorted from a hearing into the 2022 shooting.

Cross was the legal guardian of Uziyah

Cross was the legal guardian of Uziyah “Uzi” Garcia, one of the 19 children killed in the Texas massacre

During Thursday’s hearing, the judge declined to drop the criminal complaint accusing the former Uvalde school police chief of endangering children during the slow response to the school shooting, while an attorney for his co-defendant said that they want to postpone the upcoming trial. of the town where the massacre took place.

Judge Sid Harle rejected Pete Arredondo’s claim that he was wrongfully charged and that the shooter was solely responsible for endangering the victims. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the shooting on May 24, 2022.

Harle also set a trial date of October 20, 2025. An attorney for Arredondo’s co-defendant, former Uvalde school police officer Adrian Gonzales, said he will ask for the trial to be moved out of Uvalde because his client cannot get a fair trial there. Uvalde County is largely rural with fewer than 25,000 residents, about 80 miles west of San Antonio.

“Everybody knows everybody,” said Gonzales attorney Nico LaHood in Uvalde.

Both former officers attended the hearing.

Nearly 400 law enforcement officers rushed to the school but waited more than 70 minutes to confront and kill the gunman in a fourth-grade classroom. Arredondo and Gonzales are the only two officers facing charges — a fact that has sparked complaints from some victims’ families.

'We weren't even allowed into the courtroom. My wife and I were attacked by the police,” Cross later said on X

‘We weren’t even allowed into the courtroom. My wife and I were attacked by the police,” Cross later said on X

Former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, right, and his attorney Paul Looney walk into the Uvalde County Justice Center

Former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, right, and his attorney Paul Looney walk into the Uvalde County Justice Center

Documents revealed harrowing 911 calls and other police communications about the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting

Documents revealed harrowing 911 calls and other police communications about the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting

Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment or endangerment, each punishable by up to two years in prison. Gonzales did not ask the judge to dismiss his charges.

A federal investigation into the shooting identified Arredondo as the responsible incident commander, although he has argued that state police should have set up a command post outside the school and taken control.

Gonzales was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene. He was accused of abandoning his training and not confronting the gunman even after hearing gunshots while standing in a hallway.

Arredondo has said he was made a scapegoat because of the hesitant police response. The suit alleges he failed to complete his active shooter training and made crucial decisions that delayed police response while the gunman “hunted” his victims.

It is alleged that, instead of immediately confronting the shooter, Arredondo caused delays by telling officers to evacuate a hallway to wait for a SWAT team, first evacuating students from other parts of the building and attempting to deal with the shooter to negotiate while the victims were in the classroom. wounded and dying.

Arredondo’s lawyers say the danger that day was not caused by himself, but by the shooter. They argued that Arredondo should be blamed because he tried to save the lives of the other children in the building, and warned that prosecuting him would expose many future law enforcement actions to similar charges.

Surveillance footage from the school hallway shows police officers running from the classroom

Surveillance footage from the school hallway shows police officers running from the classroom

Just before 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos arrived at the school, he shot and wounded his grandmother at her home

Just before 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos arrived at the school, he shot and wounded his grandmother at her home

“Arredondo did nothing to put those children in the path of a shooter,” said Arredondo attorney Matthew Hefti.

Uvalde County prosecutors told the judge that Arredondo acted recklessly.

The massacre at Robb Elementary was one of the worst school shootings in US history, and the law enforcement response was widely condemned as a colossal failure.

Nearly 150 Border Patrol agents, 91 state police officers and school and city police rushed to the campus. As terrified students and teachers called 911 from classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. More than an hour later, a team of officers entered the classroom and killed the gunman.

Within days of the shooting, the focus of the slow response turned to Arredondo, who was described by other responding agencies as the incident commander responsible.

Multiple federal and state investigations have exposed cascading problems in law enforcement training, communications, leadership and technology and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers. Several victims or their families have filed multiple state and federal lawsuits.

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