GOP Rep. John Cornyn slammed by parent of Parkland shooting victim after saying 'finger pointing' at police is 'destructive, distracting, and unfair'

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks on the economy during a news conference at the US Capitol on May 04, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn said pointing fingers at the police was "destructive."
Reports show that police were slow to engage with the gunman at Robb Elementary School.
The father of a Parkland shooting victim slammed Cornyn for his remarks.

The father of a student who died in the 2018 Parkland school shooting has slammed Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn after the lawmaker said "finger pointing" at police in the wake of the Robb Elementary school shooting is "destructive."

"The second guessing and finger pointing among state and local law enforcement is destructive, distracting, and unfair. Complex scenarios require split second decisions. Easy to criticize with 20-20 hindsight," Cornyn said in a tweet on Saturday.

—Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) May 28, 2022

In response, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was killed when a gunman opened fire in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, killing 17 people called Cornyn "tragically wrong."

"My daughter Jaime was 2nd to last to be murdered in Parkland. She was on the 3rd floor, shot with a single AR 15 bullet that severed her spinal cord. She needed 3 additional seconds to make it to safety. If not for the failed law enforcement response in Parkland she and others would be alive today," he wrote in a tweet.

—Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) May 29, 2022

Authorities in Texas have given conflicting accounts on how long it took police to respond and engage the 18 -year-old gunman who fatally shot 21 people, including 19 children on Tuesday. All of the victims were in adjourned fourth-grade classrooms where the gunman barricaded himself.

Parents outside the school have since said police did not respond when they urged them to enter the school and some said they tried to push through law enforcement to rescue their kids.

A top Texas official said Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredond, believed that the shooter was barricaded in an empty classroom and ordered police not to enter and engage.

Experts told The Los Angeles Times that the delay could have prevented life-saving care from reaching children.

Guttenberg told Cronyn that "facts will show" that fewer people would have been killed if police responded faster.

"It is also fair to say that without the failure to act by Senators like you, these shootings may never have happened," he said. "People died because you put the police in a position of being out gunned and they then failed to engage when needed."

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