Joe Biden is expected in Uvalde, where a school shooter killed 21 lives. The US President wants to give consolation to the community. Anger at the actions of the police that day is growing.
Washington/Uvalde – After the disturbing rampage at an elementary school in the state of Texas, US President Joe Biden wants to visit the affected community of Uvalde today. Biden had announced that he would travel to Texas with his wife Jill and meet with families there.
An 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde on Tuesday. Investigations revealed significant omissions by the police during the operation. Relatives therefore raised serious allegations against the emergency services. Prominent Republicans, including ex-President Donald Trump, have called for more guns in schools in response to the attack.
Biden previously said he wanted to show his sympathy to the affected families during his visit to Texas and offer some comfort to the community at a time of shock, grief and trauma. The feelings of the relatives are now increasingly mixed with anger.
The shooter locked himself in the school with children and teachers in two connected classrooms on Tuesday and caused the bloodbath there. 17 people were injured.
Police admit mistakes
Texas Public Safety Director Steven McCraw unveiled staggering new findings on Friday that left people stunned. Accordingly, at an early stage, 19 police officers were present in the hallway in front of the classroom in which the gunman had holed up. However, the officers made no attempts to enter the room for more than 45 minutes, but waited for special forces to reinforce them.
“It was the wrong decision. Period,” McCraw said. “There is no excuse for that.” He reported that several children had called the police from the classroom, sometimes several times, to get help. But the officials in the hallway didn’t intervene for a long time.
In view of the new findings, relatives raised serious allegations against the police. “They could have saved some lives,” the Washington Post quoted the grandfather of a killed student as saying. “You could have saved her,” he said, looking at his granddaughter. The father of a child who was killed also told CNN that his daughter might still be alive if the police had acted differently. Another student’s mother lamented, “You waited too long.”
Gun laws debate again
The Uvalde killing spree has fueled the debate about tightening gun laws in the United States. Many Republicans have been opposed to stricter regulations for years. Republican ex-President Trump also defended the lax gun laws in many places in the USA in an appearance before the powerful gun lobby NRA (National Rifle Association) on Friday and instead called for more guns in schools. “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens,” he said. Armed teachers and armed security guards could prevent horrific acts like those in Uvalde, Trump argued.
The annual NRA meeting was held in Houston, Texas, just three days after the school massacre in Uvalde, some 450 kilometers away. Some politicians and musicians canceled their participation in the NRA event, but not Trump. According to media reports, thousands of people protested against gun violence and the NRA in front of the event site.
Just days before the Uvalde massacre, a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others. According to investigators, the act was racially motivated – 11 of the 13 victims were black. US Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Buffalo on Saturday to visit the crime scene and attend the memorial service for one of the victims. The US has long struggled with massive levels of gun violence. dpa
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