Uvalde Parent Begins Camping Out In Front of Police Department Demanding Officers Are Fired
At 11:33 a.m. on Wednesday, Brett Cross began camping out in front of the Uvalde Police Department to demand police officers Javier Martinez, Louis Landry and Eduardo Canales be fired for their failures during a 2022 school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers.
Martinez, Landry and Canales were three of the first police officers to respond to the shooting. An independent investigation by Jesse Prado found that all three officers acted in “good faith” and they should be exonerated for any wrongdoing. The victims’ families were outraged over Prado’s report, which he presented last week, and they demanded that Uvalde city council reject the investigation.
Cross, whose 10-year-old son Uziyah Garcia was murdered in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, told the city council that they had until Tuesday to formally reject Prado’s independent investigation. During Tuesday’s city council meeting, when Mayor Cody Smith said they needed more time, Cross told the city council that he was “done asking, done begging, done pleading,” and said he was going to take action.
“Enough is enough,” Cross said to the city council on Tuesday.
Smith did not immediately return a request for comment.
Cross told HuffPost on Wednesday morning that he is planning on starting his protest at 11:33 a.m. because that’s the time the gunman first shot the children in the classroom.
Cross said he wasn’t surprised that the city council hadn’t made a decision.
“That’s just how the city of Uvalde is and operates,” he said. “I’m not surprised by anything.
“I didn’t fight before Uzi was gone, so that is one of my biggest regrets, so I have to continue to fight to make sure that this becomes a better place for my other children.”
This isn’t the first time Cross has protested in the form of camping out. In September 2022, Cross and others camped out in front of the school district’s offices to demand that the school district’s police officers be suspended while they were being investigated. After 10 days, the school district relented and suspended the officers.
In a statement to HuffPost, Uvalde police said the department supports people’s First Amendment rights.
“We understand the significance of these times and recognize the importance of open dialogue,” part of the statement reads. ”We encourage peaceful expressions of concern and advocate for constructive conversations. However, we kindly ask that those assembling keep in mind the operational challenges our employees face daily.”
Prado’s investigation came to starkly different conclusions than the federal Department of Justice report released in January. The DOJ’s report found that police officers “demonstrated no urgency” during the mass shooting and that there were “cascading failures” in officers’ response. The report did not include any criminal charges, however.
