UVALDE, Texas – The parents of Alexandra “Lexi” Rubio, a victim of the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, said in an interview with ABC News on Thursday that a now-former officer and Texas Dept. of Public Safety trooper had been working at their son’s campus before she was fired by the school district.
This comes after numerous reports surfaced, showing Crimson Elizondo was one of the troopers who first responded to the school shooting on May 24. Elizondo remained mostly outside of the building until after the gunman was killed.
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She was also heard on body cam video saying, “If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside. I promise you that,” according to CNN, who first reported the story.
RELATED: Uvalde CISD fires ex-DPS trooper who responded to massacre
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, Lexi’s mother, told ABC News said she doesn’t understand why the district made the decision to hire Elizondo, or why she took the job with Uvalde CISD.
“I understand that mistakes were made and it led to this awful, awful event. There’s doors that were unlocked, there’s police failure to go in, there’s people who knew the shooter had problems and didn’t say anything. But now we’re in the after. And after, you know, these things and, you know, how dangerous this is, and you still hire people who aren’t going to do their job. That woman is at my son’s campus. She’s in charge of protecting my son and those children if something were to happen again,” Kimberly said. “She already failed, so I don’t understand why she herself would apply for this job, and I also don’t understand why the school district would hire her.”
Kimberly said the school district has made the right decision in terminating Elizondo’s employment, but her family is still concerned about the district’s vetting and hiring process.
“I think UCISD did the right thing in terminating Officer Elizondo, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that they hired her to begin with,” Kimberly said. “As the school district that I send my children off to, I expect them to be vetting these officers to make sure that the right people are tasked with protecting our students.”
The school district said Wednesday that Elizondo’s comments heard on body cam video were “not consistent with the district’s expectations.” Uvalde CISD also issued an apology to the shooting victims’ families and the Uvalde community.
Kimberly and Felix Rubio said after viewing the body cam footage and hearing Elizondo’s comments, it’s clear why she didn’t assist law enforcement in confronting the gunman.
“This officer in particular was there minutes, two minutes, after the shooting started, and it’s my understanding that the school district thought that it was okay to hire her because she was only outside of the building. But my response to that is that it’s worse. That means that she didn’t even bother to go inside, and then we find out on camera that she did. She was inside of the hallway. She didn’t go in because it wasn’t her child. She knew these kids were in danger. It just wasn’t enough for her to risk her life,” Kimberly said.
“I guess our Lexi’s life and everybody else’s kids’ lives didn’t matter to her -- only if it was her boy,” said Lexi’s father, Felix Rubio.
The Rubio family is still pushing for accountability and transparency from the school district and said there may be other officers still in question.
They also join other shooting victims’ families in demanding that the district suspend its officers who stood in the hallway for 77 minutes during the Robb Elementary massacre that claimed 21 lives.
Superintendent Hal Harrell has previously confirmed that although the officers are still working in the district, there is an ongoing investigation.
Kimberly told ABC News that investigating the officers is the right step forward, but said they should still be suspended during that process.
“...They just keep failing us. I expect them to be transparent. I expect accountability. I don’t understand why they can’t bring us along through this process. Investigate these officers, put them on suspension while you do so. It’s very clear you would have had this person on your payroll until the conclusion in the investigation had we not done your job for you and spotted her outside Uvalde elementary. There’s other officers at question. You need to suspend them,” Kimberly said.
Families are still stationed outside of Uvalde CISD headquarters. They said they plan to stay put until further action from the district is taken.
You can watch the full interview of the Rubio family with ABC News below: