Uvalde Parent Says He Was Arrested For Saying 'F**k' At County Meeting
Brett Cross, whose son died in the 2022 mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, said in a TikTok video Monday night that he was arrested earlier in the day for cursing in a county commissioners’ meeting.
“I was literally arrested for saying ‘f**k’ in a commissioner’s court because Mariano Pargas wants to sit there and act like he did nothing wrong when he knew that there were eight to nine kids that were still alive in a classroom and he walked the fuck away,” Cross said in his video, .
Cross was arrested Monday morning after he yelled at Pargas, a Uvalde commissioner who was the acting Uvalde Police chief when the shooting at Robb Elementary occurred.
In Cross’ TikTok video, he shared footage from the meeting, which shows him questioning why Pargas had been absent from recent county commissioner’s meetings. When Judge William Mitchell warns Cross to watch his language, Cross yells, “Language, language, language. My child is fucking dead. Dead. And you have the balls and the gall to stand up here.”
Cross was then escorted out, arrested and charged with disrupting a meeting or procession, according to CBS affiliate KENS 5. Uvalde Police referred HuffPost to the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, which made the arrest. The sheriff’s office did not return a request for comment.
“That’s what they’re worried about,” Cross said on TikTok. “They’re more worried about me saying the word ‘fuck’ than they are that my son and others were murdered.” Cross’ 10-year-old son, 18 other children and two teachers were murdered in the shooting.
There has to be “some respect, there has to be reverence,” Commissioner Ronald Garza told HuffPost of the Monday meeting.
“I’m just disappointed at what transpired yesterday, but I’d like to just reemphasize the commissioner’s court will always support the parents and the families and they’re welcome to our commissioner’s court meetings and they’re welcome to express their opinion, but we’re a country of law and order and a courtroom of any level must be respected.”
Garza said he “absolutely” understands why Cross would be angry and cuss.
“Uvalde’s hurting,” he said. “The parents are hurting and Uvalde hurts with them.”
Pargas, along with fellow commissioners John Yeackle and Jerry W. Bates, did not immediately return a call.
CNN reported in November 2022 that on the day of the shooting, Pargas was told at 12:16 p.m. that there were eight to nine children still alive inside a classroom where students had been shot and killed but failed to act in a timely manner.
Based on CNN’s analysis of bodycam and surveillance footage, he walked to the hallway at 12:17 p.m. and mentioned injured victims to a Border Patrol officer, but did not mention that there were children who were still alive when speaking a minute later to a Texas Ranger. Pargas was then seen walking away from the school and did not enter the hallway near the classroom for 30 minutes.
More than 400 police officers were on scene that day and did not enter the classroom and kill the shooter until 12:50 p.m., 77 minutes after the shooting began.
