Uvalde: Parents of massacred children stage 60 hour protest demanding police accountability

Parents of the children murdered during the Uvalde elementary school massacre have camped outside a government building since Tuesday demanding the first responders be suspended for the handling of the attack.

Brett and Nikki Cross, guardians of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia who was killed in the attack, arrived at the school district offices at 7am Tuesday.

In a video posted on Twitter early in the protest, Mr Cross said: "It's been 18 weeks since our children were murdered and they [the police] haven't done nothing, they get to walk in here and act like they work but we know they ain't working."

Several other parents joined the protest over time, all with the same demands.

They have staged several vocal protests including listing the names of all the children who died during the shooting.

During the evenings the protesters have been projecting home videos of their children onto the wall of the building.

They want the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officers who were present at the shooting to all be suspended and investigated.At one point Mr Cross livestreamed a conversation with Superintendent Hal Harrell and asked why the officers have not been suspended.

Superintendent Harrell responded: "We are doing an investigation, but I need those officers [for campus patrol]."

He admitted the response to the shooting "did not come to my expectations" and said, "there was failure that day, there absolutely was."

The shooting on May 24 at Robb Elementary was one of the worst in US history.

18-year-old Salvador Ramos murdered 19 students and two teachers, wounding 17 others.

There was a 77-minute gap between police officers arriving on the scene and them moving to apprehend the gunman.

There were more than 400 officers on the scene before they took down the Ramos.

Videos shared online showed police trying to keep parents from entering the school to save their children.

In recent weeks several parents have testified the police prevented them from entering the building.

Since the shooting, the local police in Uvalde have come under intense criticism.

Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was in charge of the response to the attack, was fired in August.

He was the first person to lose his job as a result of the massacre but the protesters are demanding more officers should go.

Several investigations by local and state law enforcement into their handling of the massacre are underway.

But trust between the Uvalde community and law enforcement remains non-existent.

Surviving students have since returned to school but many have struggled to come to terms with what has happened and some have opted to be educated from home.

Robb Elementary was closed permanently following the shooting and will be demolished and rebuilt.

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