DOJ TO PROBE COPS’ RESPONSE
Crowd tells Biden: 'Do something!'
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden made a tearful visit Sunday to the small Texas town rocked by last week’s school massacre, but some locals said they fear the trip was just a photo op.
“Do something!” residents shouted as the Democratic president left a local church.
The president replied, “We will.’’
Others booed pro-gun-rights Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who joined Biden.
The presidential motorcade made its first stop at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, the scene of Tuesday’s mass shooting that left 19 youngsters and two school teachers dead.
The president wiped away a tear as he and the first lady spent several solemn minutes walking along the makeshift memorial outside the school, dropping off a bouquet of flowers and stopping to touch oversized photos of some of the victims.
But as the pair left the memorial to attend Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, some mourners grumbled that the president didn’t address the grieving crowds.
“I thought Biden would care for the people,” said Diana Martinez, 48. “I know he came to pay his respects for the victims, but there’s a lot of people here, and he didn’t even care to come up to us.
“I thought he was going to tell us, ‘We’re here for Uvalde’ and he’s going to do something about guns.”
Uvalde mother Rita Ortiz, 53, added that “Biden’s visit doesn’t mean much to me. It’s political. I don’t believe he cares.”
The first couple’s visit to the school came fewer than two weeks after Biden and his wife traveled to Buffalo, where 10 people were slaughtered at a supermarket in a black neighborhood, allegedly by an 18-year-old white supremacist.
‘Hearts are broken’
At church, the Bidens reached out and touched the hands of mourners as they made their way to their pew.
“Our hearts are broken,” San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said at the service.
About 20 minutes into the Mass, children were beckoned to the front of the church, where they sat down and Garcia-Siller addressed them.
He told them that he had seen their parents cry over the past several days, but said the children would help the Uvalde community recover.
“You are alive and for all of us here. I truly believe you will help us to heal,” the archbishop said. “You will remember this day — that you were here to help us touch those who have left us.”
At one point during the service, the archbishop asked the congregation to also pray for the shooter, Salvador Ramos, who
was eventually killed by police.
Some congregants responded by hanging their heads, while others simply stared blankly at Garcia-Siller.
Additional reporting by Marjorie Hernandez