Texas sheriff's deputy assigned to assist Uvalde school shooting response fired for being drunk on the job
A sheriff's deputy who was arrested for public intoxication after being sent to Uvalde to assist in the school shooting response has been fired, ABC13 News reports.
Brazoria County sheriff's deputy Christopher Lofton was intoxicated enough to be a danger to himself and others, the sheriff's office said.
The sheriff's office also said that Lofton violated multiple department policies and did not comply with the department's mission.
An investigation found that the two-year veteran became intoxicated where he was staying in Uvalde and was immediately relieved of his assignment. Lofton was part a team of eight patrol deputies and two dispatchers who were assembled on May 31 by the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office to to assist Uvalde police in the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school which killed 19 students and two teachers.
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The haunting stories told by young students who were forced to play dead as a heavily armed gunman continued a methodical spree have been underscored by accounts of the slow reaction by police during the drama.
Ten-year-old Samuel Salinas was sitting in his fourth-grade classroom when the shooter, later identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, barged in with a chilling announcement: "You're all going to die."
Then "he just started shooting," Salinas told ABC News.
Texas authorities belatedly admitted Friday that as many as 19 police officers were in the school hallway for more than an hour without acting, thinking the shooter had ended his killing.
"From the benefit of hindsight... it was the wrong decision, period," said Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw.
McCraw revealed a series of emergency calls -- including by a child begging for police help -- that were made from two adjoining classrooms where the gunman was barricaded.
Ramos, who carried two assault-style rifles, was finally killed by police.
Uvalde survivors have described making desperate, whispered pleas for help in 911 phone calls during his assault. Many played dead to avoid drawing the shooter's attention.
Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo even smeared the blood of a dead friend on herself as she feigned death.
Samuel Salinas said he thinks Ramos fired at him, but the bullet struck a chair, sending shrapnel into the boy's leg. "I played dead so he wouldn't shoot me," he said.
With additional reporting by AFP
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