Source: CHANDAN KHANNA / Getty
The aftermath of the tragedy of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas has been racked with pain and confusion. This has only been heightened by conflicting reports about the police response to the shooting which were showcased during a primetime news program.
On Thursday night (May 26th), anchor Ali Velshi began the MSNBC “Prime” program by addressing the concerns over the shifting accounts of what transpired as the mass shooting unfolded at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon (May 24th). “In the aftermath of any horrific event, information is spotty. Our understanding of what happens evolves over time, but even by those standards of breaking, and developing news, the inability of officials to give a consistent, and coherent account of a key portion of the timeline of attack is, frankly, confounding,” Velshi began.
The anchor cited a series of official statements on whether the gunman was actually engaged by officers on the scene. He also pointed to two videos taken by those present outside of the school showing officers reportedly clashing with parents. It would later be revealed that two of them were allegedly arrested according to witness accounts. Velshi stressed that having these concerns about the apparent shifting of official police accounts and their response is vital. “Look, the point in raising all these questions about the law enforcement response is certainly not to pick on officers who may well have been very brave and doing their best in an unbelievably stressful and highly threatening situation,” he said.
Velshi would then point out the town of Uvalde’s school district having allocated funds to create its own police force and threat assessment teams, as well as the Republican state officials running the government creating policies and insisting that more law enforcement is the only answer to deter these mass shooting incidents. “If that is the only answer that Texas has to the scourge of school shootings, — not to prevent them, but to guard and respond to schools better when they happen — well, they’ve got to show that plan works,” Velshi stated. “And tonight the people of Uvalde have a lot of questions about how well it worked.”
Watch the entire clip below.