Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor in Texas, interrupted Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s press conference on the Uvalde school shooting on Wednesday, shouting, “This is on you!”
“The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing,” O’Rourke said as he approached the stage where Abbott and other state officials were seated.
"It's on you."
In a striking moment, Texas gubernatorial candidate @BetoORourke interrupts Gov. Greg Abbott's press conference about the Uvalde shooting. pic.twitter.com/jINIAave6Y
— The Recount (@therecount) May 25, 2022
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who was also onstage, called O’Rourke a “sick son of a b****,” according to the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek.
In response to the Democrat telling Abbott the shooting is “on you,” McLaughlin said, “It’s on a**holes like you. Why don’t you get out of here?”
Police escorted O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman, out of the conference after the confrontation with the officials on stage.
“There are family members who are crying as we speak,” Abbott said after O’Rourke had been escorted out. “Think about the people who are hurt and help those who are hurt.”
Abbott was holding a press conference to share information about a shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two adults dead on Tuesday.
The governor said the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was reportedly a high school dropout with no known history of mental health problems.
Roughly 30 minutes before Ramos went to the elementary school, he wrote on Facebook that he was going to shoot his grandmother, Abbott said. Ramos later added that he had shot his grandmother and then that he was going to shoot an elementary school.
While Abbott described the writings as “posts,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone tweeted, “The messages Gov. Abbott described were private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred. We are closely cooperating with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation.”
Abbott said Ramos shot his grandmother in the face. The grandmother contacted police as the gunman drove off.
Ramos crashed his car near the school and exchanged shots with law enforcement officials before making his way inside the school, where he killed 19 children and two teachers in a single classroom.
A Border Patrol officer ultimately killed Ramos.
Abbott said that law enforcement officials ran toward the gunfire adding, “They were able to save lives. Unfortunately, not enough.”
Ramos legally purchased two rifles in the days following his 18th birthday, the Houston Chronicle reported. One day after his 18th birthday, he purchased one of the rifles from a federally licensed gun store, which would have required a background check, according to the report. He purchased 375 rounds of ammunition one day later and a second rifle on May 20.
After being escorted out of the press conference, O’Rourke told reporters outside: “This 18-year-old, who just turned 18, bought an AR-15 and took it into an elementary school and shot kids in the face and killed them. Why are we letting this happen in this country? Why is this happening in this state? Year after year, city after city.”
O’Rourke said we owe the victims’ parents action.
“We owe those parents our prayers and I’m praying for them, and I’ve called them and I’ve talked to them today,” he said. “We owe them our help and our assistance … But we [also] owe those parents action.”