Uvalde Victim’s Sister Removed From Courtroom After Emotional Outburst During Trial [WATCH]

The sister of a teacher killed in the Uvalde school massacre was barred from a Texas courtroom Tuesday after an emotional outburst during the child endangerment trial of a former school police officer accused of failing to act during the shooting, as reported by The New York Post.

Velma Duran was removed from the courtroom in Corpus Christi during the trial of Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer facing multiple criminal charges.

The disruption occurred during cross-examination testimony involving the police response to the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School.

The family of Irma Garcia, a teacher who was murdered during the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, have reportedly confirmed that Irma’s husband Joe has died of a heart attack.
Joe & Irma were married 24 years.
They are survived by four children. pic.twitter.com/eXZcekOUuY

— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) May 26, 2022

“You know who went into the fatal funnel? My sister,” Duran shouted inside the courtroom, according to reporting from KENS5. The term “fatal funnel” refers to a narrow space, such as a hallway, that leaves those entering vulnerable to gunfire.

Duran’s sister, Irma Garcia, was among the 21 victims killed during the attack, which claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year

Authorities said the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, opened fire inside the school before being killed by law enforcement nearly 80 minutes later.

As she was escorted out of the courtroom, Duran continued to shout. “Did she need a key? Why do you need a key?” she said, according to video shared by the outlet.

The outburst followed questioning of Sgt. Joe Vasquez, one of the officers who ultimately confronted Ramos. During cross-examination, defense attorney Nico LaHood asked Vasquez about the initial response.

“You know now that he was in a fatal funnel with those first five officers and two of those officers got shot?” LaHood asked, referring to Gonzales. “Yes, sir,” Vasquez responded.

Gonzales is charged with 29 counts of child abandonment related to the deaths of the 19 students and 10 additional children who survived the shooting.

Prosecutors allege Gonzales waited until “after the damage had been done” before entering the school to search for the gunman.

Duran has attended the proceedings closely and has publicly criticized prosecutors for not filing criminal charges related to the deaths of her sister and co-teacher Eva Mireles, who was 44 years old at the time of her death.

“Now I know, no ones gonna take accountability for my sister’s death. It’s like she never existed,” Duran told Texas Public Radio after being removed from the courtroom.

Judge Sid Harle ruled that Duran would be barred from returning to the courtroom for the remainder of the trial.

Outside court, Duran continued to speak with reporters.

“There’s two wonderful women dead, who tried their best to protect their children. They didn’t need a shield, they didnt need an AR-15 or a pistol, they didn’t need nothing.”

“They used themselves to protect their children.”

Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia….the two teachers who lost their lives while trying to save the lives of their students at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX. I salute them both this morning. They are true American heroes whose names should be remembered throughout history. pic.twitter.com/oPGpJZqCob

— Principal Kafele (@PrincipalKafele) May 30, 2022

Duran said she was overwhelmed by repeated references to her sister’s fourth-grade classroom during testimony, including the display of autopsy photographs. “Seeing the faces on the screen today, it was just like I couldn’t breathe,” she said.

Gonzales is one of two officers criminally charged in connection with the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting, a rare move in cases involving police conduct. Defense attorneys have argued Gonzales acted according to his training and the information available at the time.

“The government wants it to seem like he just sat there,” LaHood told jurors in opening statements. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”

Gonzales’s attorney Jason Goss added, “This isn’t a man waiting around. This isn’t a man failing to act.”

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