Uvalde father begins 10th day of protest outside school district office

Brett Cross, whose son Uziyah Garcia was shot and killed during the Robb Elementary school shooting in May, has been camping outside of the school district administrative office demanding accountability.

Cross has been there for 10 days now.

He expressed his mounting anger as information continues to be released detailing the security failures of that day.

“I’m not backing down. I’m a pissed-off dad who is going to do everything in his power to not let this happen to another child or another father or another mother,” Cross said during an interview with TODAY.

Cross spoke fondly of his son, who Cross said loved Spiderman, McDonalds and who wanted to be a police officer.

“He wanted to be a cop so that he could help people,” Cross said. “It’s sickening, that it’s those same officers — in the same profession that he wanted to do — that ultimately failed him.”

A recent report issued by a Texas state House Committee found that there was “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making.”

Steven McCraw, who is the Texas Department of Public Safety Director, testified in front of a special State Senate committee and said that law enforcement’s response was “abject failure,” going on to say that nothing stood between the gunman and officers but the “on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.”

Cross issued a series of tweets ahead of his protest talking about the events of that day.

“This time, four months ago, It was a normal day. I was at my office getting a booklet made for each of my coworkers that would show their growth in their skills to help get them raises. 2 hours from then, I’d get a call that would shatter my world. My wife called, screaming ‘There’s a shooter at Uzi’s school.’ I told my lead I had to go as I was running to my car.”

He continued, “As I hauled ass towards the school, I got another call. ‘He’s in the fourth-grade hallway, and I can’t get ahold of Uzi!’ The shots rang through my phone as my wife was telling me this.”

“By the time I made it to town I received a third call. ‘They aren’t letting us see or get the kids, go to the civic center.’ I headed there, not knowing it would be 8 hours of sitting and hoping. As busloads of children got off, Uzi’s class never made it.”