Uvalde mayor says he fears a cover-up of investigation into school massacre and

Uvalde, Texas
CNN
 — 

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told CNN he’s lost faith in Texas leaders investigating how law enforcement responded to the shooting at his town’s elementary school that killed 19 children and two adults.

“I’m not confident, 100%, in DPS because I think it’s a cover-up,” he said of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the lead agency tasked with identifying what led to well-armed officers waiting outside a classroom for more than an hour before engaging the gunman.

“McGraw’s covering up for maybe his agencies,” McLaughlin continued in his sharpest attack yet on Col. Steven McCraw, the DPS director.

McCraw told the Texas Senate that the police response was an “abject failure” and placed sole blame on school police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo.

But McLaughlin told CNN on Tuesday he did not feel the full story of the May 24 massacre was coming out, partly because Texas DPS was not being transparent.

“Every agency in that hallway is gonna have to share the blame,” he said. Personnel from multiple law enforcement agencies gathered inside and outside the school before the gunman was challenged and killed.

McLaughlin said in an interview: “At this point, I don’t know what to believe and what not to believe.”

And while he said he trusted the DPS individuals serving his community, he no longer believed the upper management.

CNN reached out to DPS for comment and was referred to District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee of the 38th Judicial District for details. She is the official who ordered an investigation by the Texas Rangers division of DPS, which is ongoing.

DPS press secretary Ericka Beltran did say, “The Texas Department of Public Safety is committed to working with multiple law enforcement agencies to get the answers we all seek.”

McLaughlin said he had not had a briefing “from anybody” since the day after the shooting when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others had traveled to Uvalde to be told what had happened.

Still, he said, key facts in the timeline did not align – a timeline that has already been changed massively since the hours after the attack when law enforcement was praised by Abbott and others.

“I lost confidence because the narrative changed from DPS so many times and when we asked questions, we weren’t getting answers.”

McLaughlin asked the US Department of Justice to investigate the law enforcement response and that work has now begun.

He repeatedly said his goal was just to get the truth for the families of the two teachers and the 19 children, aged from 9 to 11, who were shot and killed that day.

And he called for Abbott to return to Uvalde to speak to the grieving relatives.

“These families want to talk to the governor and he needs to come and see them,” he said, adding he was writing to Abbott to…