Victim’s sister yells at Texas law chief

AUSTIN, Texas — Family members of victims killed in the Uvalde school shooting confronted Texas’ police chief Tuesday in an emotional end to a day of protests at the state Capitol over gun laws.

Velma Duran, whose sister Irma Garcia was one of two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School last May, scolded Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw as other Uvalde residents and gun control supporters looked on in a committee room at the Capitol, where McCraw prepared to leave after testifying to lawmakers.

Nineteen students were killed in the Uvalde attack, one of the worst classroom shootings in U.S. history. Duran briefly brought the hearing to a halt as she yelled from her seat to McCraw about law enforcement officers’ waiting more than an hour to confront the gunman who had an AR-15style rifle in the fourth-grade classroom.

“They stood around and enabled the shooter to obliterate my sister. You couldn’t recognize her,” Duran told McCraw. “Look at me!”

McCraw briefly leaned over to Duran, but it was not clear what he said before walking out of the committee room.

Brett Cross, the uncle of 10-year-old victim Uziyah Garcia, followed McCraw out and said later he had a brief conversation with the director.

The unusual scene in the Capitol happened just hours after a crowd of gun control supporters rallied outside. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and leaders of the state’s GOP majority in the Legislature have shown no support for passing new gun restrictions between now and May, which is their first chance to pass new laws since the Uvalde attack.

McCraw has said he will not resign amid some Uvalde residents’ calling for his ouster.

He has called the broad response to the shooting an “abject failure,” and seven state police officers were placed under internal review. Four were cleared of wrongdoing and one resigned before the review was complete. Two were fired, with one currently appealing the decision.