Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin stated on Monday that local police had only offered the facts when speaking about a deadly mass shooting that took place at his city’s elementary school last week.
In an emailed statement to Fox News, McLaughlin argued that “Local law enforcement has not made any public comments about the specifics of the investigation into the incident or [misled] anyone”.
"Statements by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick that he was ‘not told the truth’ are not true. All statements and comments made to date about the ongoing investigation are being handled by DPS/Texas Rangers,” McLaughlin added, referring to the Texas Department of Public Security.
The statement comes after the Uvalde mayor requested that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate “the [local] law enforcement response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on 24 May”.
Spokesman Anthony Coley explained that the review’s goal is “to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events”.
According to the spokesman, “the review will be conducted with the Department’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing”. He pledged that “as with prior Justice Department after-action reviews of mass shootings and other critical incidents, this assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent”.
This was followed by Lt. Gov. Patrick telling Fox News that police’s choice not to immediately confront the shooter was a "bad decision, and that decision cost lives."
He argued that “no one mentioned the fact that there was this 45 minute-to-an-hour hold by the chief of the police of the school district while there were still shots being fired”.
"I take this personally, and I know the governor takes it personally. And for me, it's 140 or 150 people killed in Texas in the last six or seven years of collective anger when we're not told the truth,” Patrick added.
He was echoed by Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, who asserted that he had been misled about the police response to the shooting spree. Abbott, who had initially praised the law enforcement response, pointed out on Friday that he was angry to find out that he had been given inaccurate information on the Uvalde mass shooting. The Texas governor called for police actions to be "thoroughly” and “exhaustively" investigated.
The remarks came after officials claimed that 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos was in Robb Elementary School for 40 minutes to an hour before police began to storm the fourth-grade classroom where the killings occurred.
On Wednesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said that as a result of the 24 May shooting rampage, 19 students and two adults had been killed by the shooter, who was then gunned down by police.