Uvalde Parent Arrested At County Commissioners' Meeting: 'My Child is F**king Dead'
Brett Cross, whose son was killed in the 2022 mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, was arrested Monday morning following a Uvalde County commissioners’ meeting.
In video of the meeting, Cross is seen yelling and appears to point his finger at Commissioner Mariano Pargas, who was the acting Uvalde police chief on the day of the mass shooting.
Another person on the commissioners court tells Cross to stop using expletives.
“Language, language, language,” Cross says in response. “My child is fucking dead. Dead. And you have the balls and the gall to stand up here.”
Cross is then escorted out of the meeting.
Neither Cross nor Pargas immediately returned a request for comment.
Brett Cross listens with other shooting victim family members to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta during a news conference were they shared the findings of a federal report into the law enforcement response to a school shooting at Robb Elementary, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Uvalde, Texas.
In a statement posted on Facebook, the Uvalde Police Department said it assisted in the arrest and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office was investigating the details surrounding the incident.
“The Uvalde Police Department is committed to upholding the law and ensuring public safety in our community. As an assisting agency, our role in this incident was limited to providing support in the transport process. We are cooperating fully with relevant authorities to gather all pertinent information related to this case,” the statement read.
Cross has been an outspoken critic of police’s failed response to the mass shooting on May 24, 2022, that killed 19 children and two adults, including his 10-year-old son Uziyah Garcia, at Robb Elementary School. The police’s response has been called an “abject failure” after more than 400 police officers waited more than 70 minutes to enter the classroom where the shooter was.
In September 2022, Cross and others camped outside the school district’s office demanding the district’s police officers who were on the scene that day to be held accountable. After 10 days of protest, the Uvalde school district suspended its entire police force. In a school board meeting a few days later, Cross spoke about his disgust at the lack of support for victims.
“I will say this, if it had been 17 white kids, all of those people out there would have been in here,” he said. “All of our kids matter.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
