Greg Abbott Accused of Hiding Details About Texas Mall Shooting

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been accused by a Texas state senator of withholding details about Saturday's mass shooting at a mall.

Democratic Senator Roland Gutierrez said Monday that little information has emerged about the shooting, in which eight people were killed and seven others injured, because Abbott has directed law enforcement officials to "keep it quiet."

"Ever since [the shooting in] Uvalde, we've seen mass shootings across this nation, and cops come out and they tell you who died, who the shooter was, they tell you what the motivation was, and they do it all within 24 hours. Hell, they do it all within a few hours," Gutierrez said during a press conference. He represents Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were shot to death at an elementary school last year.

"But you don't see it here [in Texas], and you don't see it here because there's one man in a center office in this building that doesn't want you to see what's going on," the senator said. "And he tells his top cop, 'You're in control here man. Keep it quiet.'"

On Saturday afternoon, a gunman opened fire at a crowded mall in Allen, a Dallas suburb, before a police officer killed him. Authorities have identified 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia as the shooter but have not named any of the victims, who include children. Reports say Garcia is suspected of espousing white supremacist ideology, but a motive has not yet been determined.

In a statement, Gutierrez's spokesperson told Newsweek said that the senator believes there's been a delay in information similar to what happened in the Uvalde shooting and that "there is a massive lack of transparency in Texas that needs to be addressed."

Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during a May 25, 2022, press conference at Uvalde High School, where 19 children and two teachers died in a shooting. On Monday, he said he expected the public will get more information in "the coming days" about Saturday's mall shooting in the city of Allen. Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty

"Other law enforcement agencies around the country have been able to get out far more information about their shootings much quicker, as you've seen recently in Nashville," spokesperson Jorge Vasquez said. He was referring to the Christian school shooting in Tennessee in March, in which six people, including three children, died.

Newsweek reached out to Abbott by email or comment.

On Monday, Gutierrez said Abbott, a Republican, did not want the public to know that most of the people who died in the Allen shooting were minorities so the governor could go to the U.S.-Mexico border and "blame [President Joe] Biden for some bulls**** that's not existent."

"The reality is that we are in a more dangerous state because Republicans have made it more dangerous," Gutierrez said.

Earlier in the morning, Abbott held a press conference at the Capitol but avoided discussing the shooting or a separate incident in Brownsville, where an SUV drove into a crowd of people in front of a migrant shelter on Sunday, killing eight people and injuring 10 others. Instead, he spent 15 minutes criticizing the Biden administration's immigration policies and announced a series of initiatives to address the migrant surge at the border.

Asked about the incident in Allen, the governor told reporters, "The first step to leading toward some type of resolution here, as well as providing information about the response needed from the state of Texas, is to know exactly why and how this happened."

Abbott said that he expected the public will get more information in "the coming days" and that Texas leaders would be able to take action to prevent similar crimes based on that information.

In a Sunday statement, Gutierrez said, "Our hearts are with Allen tonight as their community mourns. I know what they are going through all too well."

In the days following the May 2022 Uvalde school shooting, it was learned that local and state officials had given inaccurate reports of the timeline of events and gave conflicted accounts about the police response. Abbott later said he initially shared the inaccurate information because he was "misled," adding that he was "absolutely livid about that."

During the last legislative session, Gutierrez filed several bills addressing what he called "common sense gun safety measures" but none of them received a hearing. Those included efforts to raise the age of purchase for an AR-15 to 21, expand background checks and require the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide information about safe firearm storage to parents in Texas schools.