“They're just throwing us out for no reason”

A father whose daughter survived the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, said members of the community face harassment from law enforcement.

“… they just stop us for no reason telling us to leave…”

(Video: CNN Max)

This week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report detailing its findings regarding the official response to the May 24, 2022, tragedy at Robb Elementary School, where 19 students and two teachers died. Like this addressed the “cascading failures of leadership,” CNN anchor Jim Acosta welcomed the father of a survivor who claimed the failures led to abuses of power.

“I live a few houses down from one of the policemen who was there, and I saw him every day,” said Miguel Cerrillo, whose daughter Miah, then 11, survived the massacre. as reported covering himself in his dead girlfriend's blood and pretending to be dead after calling 911 with a friend.

“And it costs us. Like I said, it's hard for us every day to see these officers still out on the streets patrolling and harassing us every day for no reason. They are just throwing us out for no reason,” said the father. “And they still have it, they still have them running around the streets, you know, and doing nothing, just harassing people.”

Appearing shocked by the accusation, Acosta asked Cerrillo for clarification, asking, “What do you mean by that, harassing people?”

To this, he stated: “We have a few families, including myself, who literally want to – could – arrest us for no reason telling us to leave Uvalde, telling us all kinds of things because they know the truth will come out , and they didn't want us here.”

Cerrillo, who told the anchor that he lives “literally … right behind Robb Elementary,” had been asked to react to the DOJ report about which he told Acosta, “The first five minutes I read the report, I couldn't believe it. this. I couldn't, I was angry, I was angry [sic]I was very, very, very mad.”

Within the report, the Department of Justice detailed what many had already recognized from images of the school: “The most significant failure was that the responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using whatever resources and equipment were sufficient. to immediately and continuously advance toward the threat until entry was made into classrooms 111/112 and the threat was eliminated.” .

“That's amazing,” Acosta reacted to the father's claim before inviting, “Well, what do you want to tell them?”

“I really have to say, I have to tell them and Governor Abbott … he doesn't care about us … he's not worried about us. He's only worried about himself. And to change gun laws. Ho he could, but he doesn't want to. Like I said, he's just looking out for himself and his people,” Cerrillo said. “Two, the officers here, I really believe, including the police chief who's still first off, i really think you should fire the entire police station because… they let us down. They left my son. And not just my son, but several children in the classroom to die.”

It was unclear whether Acosta contacted law enforcement in Uvalde to comment on the father's claims. Meanwhile, Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell convened a grand jury into the massacre following the DOJ report.

Staff writer

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College, where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and seeker of truth, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and dog, and when he's not researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel ·the.

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