Beto Gets Endorsement Of 35 Uvalde Shooting Victim's Parents

[#TexasPolitics365]

Hours ahead of the only planned gubernatorial debate of the election cycle, the families of Uvalde school shooting victims met with and threw their support behind Democrat Beto O’Rourke, saying in a news conference that incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, had not taken meaningful enough action on gun control measures following the deaths of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers.

(Full story HERE.)
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Abbott Condemns Gang Shooting In Uvalde Park

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Gov. Greg Abbott yesterday issued a statement on the gang shooting in Uvalde and manhunt for the suspects:

“I was outraged to learn that gang violence has endangered the Uvalde community and innocent Texans this evening. I immediately called Mayor McLaughlin and County Judge Mitchell to offer the state’s full support and resources as law enforcement hunts down the gang members. After speaking with the mayor and the county judge about the immediate need for more law enforcement support, I have directed the Department of Public Safety to conduct patrol operations in gang hotspots, send an additional six DPS trooper units to work around the clock, and begin coordinating an anti-gang effort with the city. Working with the Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde County Sheriff's Office, DPS is also deploying Special Agents to target the five gangs operating in Uvalde. 

Thank you to all local and state law enforcement and first responders who swiftly went into action to protect their fellow Texans. Gang violence has no place here in Texas, and we will bring the full force of justice down on these heinous criminals.”

The violence in Uvalde comes barely four months after the mass shooting at Rob Elementary School in the city left 19 students and two teachers dead.

While Abbott's statement was in no way political, his opponent Beto O'Rourke has hammered the incumbent Republican and state legislators for not moving to ban "assault rifles" in the aftermath of the school shooting.

(Full story HERE.)
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GOP Congressman Faces Backlash for Gun Vote

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After the Uvalde school shooting, the Republican congressman who represents the city, Tony Gonzales, welcomed Democratic President Joe Biden to the community. They visited Robb Elementary together, attended mass at a local church and met with first responders.

Gonzales expressed gratitude, saying afterward that they “had an open, honest conversation about the realities this community is facing.”

That, and his vote to support gun restrictions in Congress, have led to a backlash among Republicans who previously had supported him enthusiastically.

(Full story HERE.)
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Embattled Uvalde Police Chief Fired

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The Uvalde CISD has  fired police chief Pete Arredondo, three months after Robb Elementary massacre.

The embattled now-former chief was a no-show at Wednesday's school district meeting, instead submitting a 17-page statement asserting his First Amendment rights were violated.

The decision of the board was effective immediately.

He still remains an elected member of the city council, to which he was elected before the shooting at the school.

(Full story HERE.)
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Governor's Public Safety Office Gives $1.25 Million To Uvalde ISD For Counseling

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Gov. Greg Abbott yesterday announced the Governor's Public Safety Office (PSO) is providing $1.25 million to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD). 

The funds will provide counseling, trauma-informed care, crisis intervention, and community outreach efforts for students and faculty affected by the tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School. These state financial resources will also establish a district-wide, trauma-informed counseling program to ensure Uvalde students receive support services and counseling within the UCISD.

(Full story HERE
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Texas House Report Blames Uvalde Police, State Agencies For Slow Uvalse Follow-Up During School Shooting

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Nearly 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers were at the scene on May 24, including 91 state troopers, the Texas House investigative report said, and none took initiative to lead the response. The school district police chief, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, wrote its active shooter response plan and assigned himself as incident commander, but did not follow the protocol he had set up, the report said. 

The report, however, cast a broader net of blame at “the entirety of law enforcement ... on that tragic day.” Nineteen students and two teachers died in the attack the 18-year-old gunman, who was killed when police broke into a classroom after a long delay.

(Full story HERE (
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Uvalde Police Chief/City Councilor Not Attending Meetings

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Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde CISD police chief who ordered cops to wait nearly an hour before confronting the shooter, has yet to show up to a council meeting.

Arredondo was elected as a council member earlier this year and sworn in on June 1. He has missed two regular meetings and a special emergency meeting. If he misses the next regular meeting, he could be eligible for a recall election. 

City counselors have refused to release any details they have learned about the school  shooting, which cost 19 lives.

(Full story HERE.)
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Beto Using Uvalde to Jump Start His Campaign

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Democratic Texas governor’s race candidate Beto O’Rourke is hoping to use the Uvalde school shooting to reset the contest in America’s largest red state, a contest polls show him trailing incumbent Greg Abbott by several points.

Last week, following the massacre of 19 elementary school students and two teachers by an 18-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle in Uvalde, Texas, O'Rourke briefly seized the national political spotlight by crashing the news conference of the man he wants to unseat, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and declaring — in a moment subsequently viewed widely online — that the carnage was "on you.”

(Full story HERE.)
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House Speaker Launches Independent Probe Of Evalde Shooting

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Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan says he’s forming a committee to independently investigate the school shooting in Uvalde.

“The fact we still do not have an accurate picture of what exactly happened in Uvalde is an outrage,” Phelan said in a news release.

On May 24, a gunman entered Robb Elementary in Uvalde and killed 19 children and two teachers. It was the country’s worst school shooting since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

(Full story HERE.)
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Media Tout Donor Letter As Proof Of GOP Revolt Over Guns

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Mass media is touting the fact that several Republican donors, including some that have contributed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaigns, joined other conservative Texans in signing an open letter supporting congressional action to increase gun restrictions in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead last week.

Those gun restrictions allegedly include red flag laws and extensive background checks, both of which are opposed by a majority of conservative voters in Texas.

These are among the proposals of US senator John Cornyn, who has won the praise of President Biden for being a "reasonable Republican" on the gun issue by proposing gun control legislation.

(Full story HERE.)
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Gov. Abbott Orders Random Safety Audits Of Schools

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Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday instructed state school security and education officials to start conducting “in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts” to find weak access points and see how quickly staff can enter a school building without being stopped.

The mandate was one of several the governor laid out in a letter to school security authorities in an effort to ensure district emergency operations plans are solid and school buildings are protected in the wake of the Uvalde school massacre that left 19 children and two adults dead.

(Full story HERE.)
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Disgraced Uvalde School District Police Chief Sworn in As City Councilman

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The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district's homegrown police chief, Pete Arredondo.

Arredondo was elected to the city council earlier this month, and has taken his place on the board, despite an ongoing investigation into his actions that day.

Mayor Don McLaughlin said there was nothing the city could do to prevent him being sworn in, because he had been duly elected to the position.

The state Department of Public Safety (DPS) reportedly says Arresondo is not cooperating with the ongoing investigation of the shooting.

(Full story HERE.)
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