Parkland Father Slams Uvalde Officers: 'I'm Having Flashbacks'
A Parkland father who lost his own child during the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida 4 years ago shared his thoughts about the Texas elementary school shooting and the police's lack of response in both cases. Ryan Petty spoke with Tucker Carlson who couldn't help but note how much of the story has changed surrounding the Uvalde elementary school shooting.
“There’s a lot we don’t know, but we do know that the initial version was so far from the apparent truth that it makes you wonder,” Carlson said.
“Yeah, Tucker, you know, I’m sitting here listening to you describe the timeline of events and what we think we know, and I’m getting angry,” Petty replied. “And I hear the anguish in the voices of those parents that were begging law-enforcement to do something and I remember back to Parkland and learning that the school resource officer at Parkland stood outside for 48 minutes, and I’m having flashbacks to what happened then.”
On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen other people at Robb Elementary School.
“I understand we don’t know everything, but when stories change as radically as they have over the past two days and law enforcement can’t give us a straight answer about their response, people should be angry,” he said. “My heart goes out – my heart breaks for these families.”
Carlson went on to say that securing schools was one thing, but that it couldn’t be the only thing that was done to keep students safe.
“What’s the point of any of this if the people in charge of keeping our kids safe refuse to engage with an active shooter?” he asked.
“I’m appalled at what I believe has happened, or at least what we think has happened so far,” Petty said, recapping what he believed had happened. “The fact that – look, for 12 minutes the shooter was outside shooting and then he went into the school and four minutes later police respond, but they were ill-prepared for the attack. They didn’t have body armor, it doesn’t appear like they had rifles and the ability to get into the classroom and stop the killing, so they sat outside for what appears to be 40 minutes waiting for a tactical response team to come in and address the threat. This is – this is – this is appalling. They should have been prepared.”
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"I'm having flashbacks," Parkland father @rpetty tells @TuckerCarlson. "I hear the anguish in the voices of those parents that were begging law-enforcement to do something and I remember back to Parkland ..." pic.twitter.com/2rdd6hbOOD
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) May 27, 2022
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others. Until the latest shooting in Uvalde Texas, the Parkland shooting was the deadliest school shooting on record.
Petty is an American school safety activist. His 14-year-old daughter Alaina Petty was murdered by Cruz.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office received widespread criticism for its handling of the police response, both for not following up on multiple warnings about Cruz despite a lengthy record of threatening behavior and for staying outside the school instead of immediately confronting him. This led to the resignations of several police officers who responded to the scene, and the removal of Sheriff Scott Israel.