A Democratic lawmaker interrupted Texas’ Republican governor during a news conference on the elementary school shooting that left 21 dead, accusing him of ‘doing nothing’.
Beto O’Rourke, who is in the Texas gubernatorial race, confronted Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday by yelling that the tragedy was ‘totally predictable’.
O’Rourke approached the stage as Abbott gave an update on Tuesday’s shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, in which 19 children and two teachers were .
‘The time to stop the next shooting is now, and you are doing nothing,’ O’Rourke yelled. The Democrat was shouted down by several Texas officials on the stage with the Republican governor, with one calling him a ‘sick son of a b****’.
O’Rourke, who has been a vocal advocate for gun control, was escorted out of the news conference by police. Outside, he spoke with reporters.
‘We owe those parents actions. I’ve talked to the parents in El Paso, I’ve talked to the parents in Santa Fe High School, I’ve talked to the parents in Midland Odessa,’ O’Rourke said, referencing other horrific school shootings in recent years.
‘They want us to do something right now. I want us to do something right now. We can do something right now. But if we continue to accept this, it’s not just the governor’s fault, it is on us.’
O’Rourke, who was a presidential candidate in 2020, now looks to unseat Abbott as governor in November.
In his update on Tuesday’s shooting, Abbott shared that the gunman had warned he would shoot up the school on social media. Salvador Ramos, 18, made three posts to social media in the half hour before he opened fire at the elementary school, Abbott said.
Ramos first posted that he planned to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman and lastly that he was about to shoot up an elementary school, according to the governor.
He used an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle in Tuesday’s bloodbath. He had legally purchased two rifles two days before the attack, shortly after his 18th birthday.
In addition to the 19 children and two teachers who were , 17 others were injured in the attack.
‘Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday. Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have evil in his heart,’ Abbott said during the televised news conference.
‘But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids. It is intolerable and it is unacceptable for us to have in the state anybody who would kill little kids in our schools.’
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