Charisa Bossinakis
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have visited the memorial of victims of the Uvalde mass school shooting.
While the solemn visit was meant to be a moment for the country's leader to pay his respects to the lives lost in the Texas tragedy, he was confronted by people.
The New York Times reports as the President was leaving a local church service dedicated to the victims, an onlooker yelled: “Do something.”
Mr Biden responded: “We will.”
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Anger is mounting as authorities investigate how the police handled the incident.
The gunman locked himself in a classroom for almost an hour, where he killed all of his victims, according to officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
It was confirmed that ‘numerous’ police officers did not try to break into the classroom; instead, they waited for the specialist tactical unit and began evacuating children and staff members from other areas on campus.
The Guardian reports that head of the Texas Department of Public Safety Steven McCraw said it was the 'wrong decision' for officials not to charge into Robb Elementary as the shooting unfolded.
Footage has also emerged of parents of students at Robb Elementary pleading with Uvalde police to break into the school as they crowded outside.
The Independent reports that Angeli Rose Gomez, a parent of two children at the school, drove to the campus upon hearing about the attack when she was handcuffed by police and told she was interfering in an active investigation.
Ms Gomez claimed that police pepper-sprayed another parent after he urged them to stop the gunman.
This video make so much more sense now. The cops literally stopped parents from helping their kids. pic.twitter.com/zhQfUjlpjd https://t.co/DqgZUH3uCC
— Matt Novak (@paleofuture) May 26, 2022
Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn, was killed in the shooting, also confronted officers outside the school.
Distressed with the police not moving, he told Associated Press reporters that he said to bystanders: “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to.
The calls for gun law reform in the country have also intensified following the mass shooting.
Last week, Connecticut's Senator Chris Murphy took to the Senate floor to beg Republican leaders to find ‘common’ ground with Democrats over gun laws.
Murphy said: "Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely. I understand my Republican colleagues may not agree to everything I support, but there is a common denominator we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement..."
Several protests were also staged outside the George R Brown Convention Centre, where members of the NRA met three days after the shooting.
One of the organisers of the protests and founder of the Black Lives Matter movement Ashton P Woods said the gun-rights organisation was ‘not welcome’ in Texas, according to The Guardian.