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Uvalde shooting one year later | Sen. Roland Gutierrez still fighting for change

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez has fought alongside the families of the victims for accountability and change throughout the whole process.

UVALDE, Texas — Wednesday marks one year since a gunman killed 21 students and teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez has fought alongside the families of the victims for accountability and change throughout the whole process.

KHOU 11's Anayeli Ruiz sat down with the senator to talk about what happened in the year since it happened. He said he witnessed the tragedy with his own eyes, going over hours of video, photos and information that he said changed his life forever.

"Families outside the civic center were waiting for news," Guttierez said, remembering the night of the shooting. "About every 10 minutes you heard horrible wailing and screaming."

He said the sounds of those parents' cries will be imprinted in his mind forever, just like the images from inside the classroom. 

"Police officers were vomiting, dry heaving from what they were seeing," Guttierez said.

Despite that, he said it was his duty to review the video and evidence of what happened to those kids and their teachers. Although those images will haunt him, he said he knows he needs to act for those who died.

Guttierez said he spent the year demanding accountability from the Texas Department of Transportation, as well as others involved in the response.

"It was an abject failure," he said. "Where are the supposed good guys with guns? They were all there they were just afraid."

During the 2023 Legislative Session, he said his sole purpose was to make sure no other families went through the same pain as those in Uvalde by proposing a number of bills.

"Keep guns out of the hands of people that shouldn’t have them," Gutierrez said. "We are not trying to infringe on the Second Amendment."

It's a process he said has not been successful.

"It's been a constant failure," Gutierrez said. "There are no repercussions and no legislative fixes."

Despite the shortcomings, he said he hasn't lost hope that there can be some consensus to help protect children from what happened in Uvalde a year ago.

"She was shot seven times, her arm was really damaged. She put her arm up, she defended herself. More people need to start defending those children," Gutierrez said.

Watch Anayeli Ruiz's extended interview with Sen. Roland Gutierrez:

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