Families Demand Answers and Accountability After Video Released of Police Response in Uvalde School Shooting |
“She was the light of my life,” said Alfred Garza III of his daughter Amerie Jo Garza. “She was a lot like me. She was quick-witted, she always like to laugh. She always liked to play pranks on me and scare me… We were never serious. When she was with daddy, ‘daddy time’ was playtime.”
Losing loved ones is something the 35-year-old has experienced a lot, including the death of his mother.The bad days are a struggle, “Just accepting the fact that I’m never going to see her again. Just glancing at her pictures and like, 'Oh, she’s not here anymore. I’m not going to be able to hold her and kiss her and tell her I love her or text her.
The edited video is disturbing and confirms that while officers arrived within minutes of the first shots fired, they retreated and waited for over an hour before taking down the gunman, even as more shots were fired inside the classroom and more heavily armed officers arrived.Garza says he had a feeling the video would be leaked prematurely.
Asked what he made of what he saw in the video, Garza replied, “The public knows that they took too long. That’s a hands-down no-brainer. We don’t need a thorough investigation or video to prove to know they took too long. We already know that… [but] It’s very upsetting to know that somebody didn’t take the initiative to say, 'Hey, we need to do this right now. We have guns, we have vests, we have shields, we have all these tools, and those kids have nothing.
“Supposedly, they’re going to get a medical team of doctors to examine the severity of the injuries to determine which kids could have been saved in a timely manner, so those things take time. I’m trying to be as patient as I can.”Asked what he misses most about his little girl, Garza said, “Just that touch. Just her presence, knowing that I’m not going to have her anymore. It’s hard. I miss that, being able to hug her and hold her and just tell her I love her.
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