Uvalde school massacre response review update

Brett Cross speaks during the Texas Department of Public Safety meeting on Thursday, October 27.

Brett Cross, whose nephew Uziyah Garcia was killed in the Uvalde massacre, was the first family member to address the commission Thursday and called on Col. Steven McCraw to step down, citing comments the DPS chief previously made to CNN.

Cross, who has said he helped raise Garcia and considered him a son, said he expected Texas Department of Public Safety’s top official to tender his resignation in light of failures in the law enforcement response to the school shooting.

“We’re not waiting any longer. Our families, our community, our state has waited long enough,” he added.

About 20 family and community members are at the meeting, having made the roughly three-hour drive from Uvalde.

What McCraw told CNN: In a CNN interview, McCraw said he would resign if his force was shown to have culpability for the botched response that left the shooter with dead and dying victims for 74 minutes while hundreds of officers from multiple forces arrived on scene and did not challenge him.

He pledged: “I’ll be the first to resign, I’ll gladly resign, I’ll tender my resignation to the governor if I think there is any culpability in the Department of Public Safety. Period.”