The brother of a Uvalde school shooting victim was removed from a Texas courtroom on Tuesday after he disrupted a child endangerment trial involving a former police officer. He accused his sister of using her body to shield students in a “lethal funnel” before the police intervened.
“Do you know who went into the deadly funnel? My sister,” Velma Duran yelled in a Corpus Christi courtroom, referencing a term that law enforcement uses for narrow, attack-vulnerable spaces. According to reports, she questioned why her sister, Irma Garcia, who was a teacher at Robb Elementary, needed a key to protect the children during the tragic event on May 24, 2022, which claimed the lives of 21 people, including 19 children.
As Duran was escorted from the courtroom, she continued to shout her questions. Her outburst occurred at the end of the cross-examination of sergeant Joe Vasquez, who was one of the five officers that restrained the shooter, Salvador Ramos, around 80 minutes after the attack.
During the trial, defense attorney Nico Lahoud highlighted that Vasquez was indeed in the “fatal funnel” with the initial officers who responded. Vasquez confirmed this under questioning.
The former officer, Adrian Gonzalez, is facing 29 counts related to child abandonment, involving not only the 19 students who were shot but also ten additional children who survived. Prosecutors argued that Gonzalez delayed entering the building until “after the damage had been done” to address the situation.
Duran expressed his anger that no legal action has been taken regarding the deaths of his sister and her colleague, Eva Mireles, and feels a trial is essential for accountability. He stated, “I just realized that no one is taking responsibility for my sister’s death. It’s like she never existed,” after being removed from the courtroom.
Judge Sid Harr barred Duran from re-entering during the remainder of the trial. He emphasized the heroism of both women, claiming they did whatever they could to protect their students without any weapons.
Duran shared his distress over the trial’s details, mentioning the difficult experience of seeing photos related to the case, particularly of the children. “I looked at the faces on the screen today and felt like I couldn’t breathe,” he shared, noting that the emotional toll was overwhelming.
He also expressed frustration over the lack of progress regarding charges against those responsible, recalling a conversation with the district attorney that suggested it would take time to sort everything out.
Mr. Duran has been vocal in criticizing Gonzalez, who is one of only two officers facing charges linked to the incident, characterized as the worst school shooting in U.S. history. The defense has contended that Gonzalez acted according to his training and the situational context he faced at the time.
As part of their argument, Gonzalez’s attorneys asserted that he did not fail to act and that the perception of his inaction was misleading.
