Uvalde Mayor Says Cops Didn't Lie to Governor, Are Still Working With DPS

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has asserted that local police did not lie to Texas Governor Greg Abbott about their response to last week's deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Abbott initially praised Uvalde police for displaying what he called "amazing courage" while shooter Salvador Ramos killed 19 children and two adults at the school. Amid heavy criticism of the police response days later, the governor reversed course and said he was "absolutely livid" about being "misled."

McLaughlin told KVDA on Wednesday that Abbott could not have been misled by local authorities because he and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick were briefed on the situation by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) instead.

"The local authorities have not lied to anyone," McLaughlin said. "Because the briefing that the governor and lieutenant governor and everybody else in that room [attended] was given by the DPS, not local law enforcement officers."

When asked whether he believed the Texas DPS lied to Abbott and Patrick about the response, McLaughlin responded that it was "a good question."

"I mean, I'm just as frustrated as they are," he said. "They've had three press conferences, and at all three press conferences, something has changed. In all three. It's very frustrating."

McLaughlin said he was hoping questions about the Texas DPS response would be answered by an independent review from the Department of Justice (DOJ), which he had requested following the shooting.

DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley said that the review would "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."

Also on Tuesday, McLaughlin said that Pete Arredondo had been sworn in as a member of City Council, despite heavy criticism of his actions during the shooting in his role as Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief.

Arredondo was responsible for making the decision to label Ramos a "barricaded" subject rather than an "active shooter," paralyzing the police response despite desperate 911 calls from students trapped inside the classroom with Ramos—a move that Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw called the "wrong decision."

McLaughlin also rejected allegations that local police lied to state officials following a Fox News interview with Patrick last weekend, when the lieutenant governor said that he was "not told the truth" about the police response.

"Statements by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick that he was 'not told the truth' are not true," McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News on Monday. "All statements and comments made to date about the ongoing investigation are being handled by DPS/Texas Rangers."

Newsweek reached out to the Texas DPS and Abbott's office for comment.