When I first watched this clip on Twitter I didn’t read the caption. I though this man was just a witness and then when he broke down midway I read the caption and realized this is a man who just lost his daughter. His names is Javier Cazares and this is his daughter.
Jackie Cazares, 10, was the cousin of another victim in the shooting, Annabelle. They were both in the same 4th grade class. pic.twitter.com/iMEyHeu6QS
— Natasha ❀ (@ndelriego) May 26, 2022
Cazares was one of the parents who went to the school as soon as shots were heard. He confirms what others have now said about police fighting with parents outside while the shooter was still alive inside the building.
“They said they rushed in and all that. We didn’t see that,” Cazares said. He said the police were telling parents “Let us do our job” but he said “their job was to go in and save lives not wait.” But based on what he saw it took 35-40 minutes before police went inside and killed the shooter.
“God knows how long my little girl or the rest were like that,” he said. In context it’s clear what he means. His daughter and other children were dying while police were waiting around outside, fighting with parents who wanted them to take action.
“As soon as they heard the gunshots the should have rushed in,” he said.
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This is apparently part of an AP interview. The AP has posted a slightly different edit of the same interview which starts with Cazares talking about his daughter as someone who always wanted to give something to everyone around her. In this clip he also mentions the back door which should not have been opened. “He walked in like it was his home,” Cazares said of the shooter.
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That’s all that’s available of this AP interview, but this morning the Today show interviewed two other grieving fathers, one of whom, Stephen Garcia, told a similar story of rushing to the school after a call from his daughter only to be held back by police. “I went to the school and tried to get in the building, the police barricade pushed me back out. So I just stood on the sidelines and watched this whole thing play out,” Garcia said.
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Finally, the Washington Post has another statement from a couple who live across the street from the school. What they saw confirms what many others are saying.
Dora and Bob Estrada, who live across from the street from Robb Elementary School’s main entrance, could not understand why they kept seeing police officers arrive at the scene but not immediately attempt to storm the building.
“There were a bunch of cops on the corner, and just one close, further to the front [of the school], and they were just standing there,” Dora Estrada said.
“They just stood there,” Bob Estrada said.
This really does seem inexplicable. How can every parent have known what to do while seemingly every police officer present didn’t know.
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