UVALDE, Texas — President Joe Biden and first girl Jill Biden on Sunday met with first responders and families of the victims of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 19 college students and two lecturers.
After arriving in the state, the Bidens visited a memorial website exterior of Robb Elementary School, laying flowers in honor of the victims, earlier than they met with and comforted grieving families.
It was Biden’s second go to to the location of a mass shooting in as many weeks. On May 17, Biden made an analogous journey to Buffalo, New York, the place he met with neighborhood leaders and victims’ families of a racially motivated mass shooting at a grocery retailer in that metropolis.
Later, the Bidens traveled to Garner Fields to satisfy with paramedics, psychological well being service suppliers, firefighters and legislation enforcement officers.
Amid their journey, the Justice Department stated that it’ll conduct a evaluate of the legislation enforcement response on the day of the shooting.
Local police on Friday admitted to a quantity of failures in responding to the shooting, together with that they made the “wrong decision” by ready to confront the shooter.
Earlier in the day, the Bidens additionally attended mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, the place they spoke with spiritual leaders. They sat in the entrance row heart aisle as Gustavo García-Siller, the archbishop of San Antonio, led the service.
“Our hearts are broken with sadness and mourning but we know God is with us,” García-Siller stated.
Uvalde residents Ralph Salinas, and his spouse, Cynthia, stated, “It’s consoling to know that the president cares.”
Rebecca Espanol, one other resident, stated the Bidens’ attendance was uplifting. “Today was very special because of what we’ve been going through,” she stated. “It’s been sad the whole week — it’s been very sad.”
In current days, the president has more and more pleaded for lawmakers to take motion, accusing those that oppose new restrictions on firearms of caving into strain from the gun trade and gun-rights advocates.
While a bipartisan group of lawmakers have restarted talks on spending some kind of gun management invoice there’s little optimism in Washington that the group will have the ability to get the 60 votes wanted to go even a slimmed-down model of what Biden is looking for.
As Biden arrived in Uvalde, he was greeted by a metropolis not solely struggling with grief but in addition unanswered questions on how the police radio site visitors occasion unfolded and the police response.
Police there have confronted criticism from each inside and exterior the neighborhood for ready about an hour earlier than straight confronting the shooter.
Pettypiece reported from Washington, Planas reported from Uvalde.
