A Texas mom whose daughter was killed in a school shooting was forcibly removed from a school by a state trooper when she attempted to pick up her son to join in a protest for gun control, video of the incident shows.
Ana Rodriguez is the mother of 10-year-old shooting victim Maite Rodriguez, who was killed along with 18 other kids and two teachers in last May’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.
On Wednesday, Rodriguez went to Flores Elementary School in Uvalde to pick up her son to join in a walkout protesting gun violence when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper grabbed and shoved the grieving mother out the door.
Body camera footage and security camera video from the school shows the moment the unnamed officer prevented Rodriguez from walking into the school by grabbing her arm and lifting her up as he pushed her out of the school.
Later in the video, after Rodriguez manages to speak to school administrators to check her son out for the day, the trooper admonishes the grieving mother.
“Ma’am, can I please talk with you?” the trooper says.
“No. You wouldn’t understand,” Rodriguez replies. “Was your daughter shot up? No, she was not fucking shot! So this means something to me, for my son to be able to protest.”
Moments later, the trooper tells Rodriguez, “I want you to be quiet.”
“Then stop fucking talking to me, sir!” Rodriguez snaps back.
Photos taken by Brett Cross, a parent whose son was killed in the shooting, show bruises on Rodriguez’s arm following the assault.
The incident can be tacked on to the growing list of law enforcement failures surrounding the shooting and its aftermath. Rodriguez’s daughter was killed along with more than a dozen other students as cops in Uvalde waited for more than an hour to confront the gunman. Among the many failures were admissions from law enforcement that they were scared to engage the gunman because he had an AR-15.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) called for an investigation into the incident.
“This is a DISGRACE and is NO way to treat a grieving family,” Gutierrez wrote on Twitter.
Cross said the officer involved should apologize to Rodriguez.
“I think he should issue a public apology to her,” Cross told Fox 29. “She is left with bruises all over her arms and everything and he didn’t have to react that way.”
In her obituary, Maite Rodriguez was described as “sweet soul.”
“Maite was a sweet girl and those who know and loved her were blessed with her kind, ambitious, friendly and sweet soul,” her obituary reads. “She was an AB honor student who enjoyed learning about animals and the ocean; especially dolphins, whales, and dogs. She dreamt of attending The University of Texas A&M in Corpus Christi to become a Marine Biologist because of her caring heart towards wildlife and the animals within it.”