Uvalde mayor flatly denies report claiming officer had school shooter in his sights

The mayor of Uvalde, Texas is flatly denying a report issued this week by the Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center that claimed a local police officer had 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos in his sights but declined to open fire on him.

As the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, the ALERRT Center report "used school video, third-party video, body cameras, radio logs, the testimony of officers who were on the scene and statements from investigators to create a timeline of events" and found that "a police officer had the Uvalde school shooter in his rifle sight before the gunman entered Robb Elementary School but didn’t fire because he believed he needed permission to take the shot."

However, a new statement flagged by CNN's Shimon Prokupecz from Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin calls the report's claim completely false.

"No Uvalde police department officer saw the school shooter... prior to him entering the school," McLaughlin said. "No Uvalde police officers had any opportunity to take a shot at the gunman. A Uvalde Police Department officer saw someone outside, but was unsure of who he saw and observed children in the area as well. Ultimately, it was a coach with children on the playground, not the shooter."

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Prokupecz, who for weeks has been trying to uncover all the facts regarding the police response to the shooting, expressed shock at McLaughlin's denial.

"This is just beyond anything…anything I’ve ever seen in an investigation of this magnitude," he writes. "Significant piece of information released yesterday, the Uvalde mayor says is not true."