Parkland father Ryan Petty laid into Uvalde police officers after the news broke that they had waited outside Robb Elementary School while an active shooter was barricaded inside with the students and teachers.
Petty joined Fox News host Tucker Carlson to discuss the police response, and he compared it to the moment that he learned that the resource officers at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School had waited outside for 48 minutes while students were being shot.
WATCH:
"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
Carlson began the segment by noting that the story had changed dramatically in the last 24 hours, particularly with regard to how and when police had responded to the situation.
“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.”
Petty acknowledged that the investigation was still in the early stages — and what people thought they knew could change more than once in the coming days — but the initial reports were certainly raising some red flags.
“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.”