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Texas School Shooting; Russia's War on Ukraine; NRA Convention Goes On. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 28, 2022 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
Another day, another frustrating revision to the police account of how the Texas mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead actually unfolded.
Now officials say officers were on the scene for more than an hour before finally confronting and killing the gunman. For much of that time, police waited in the hallway, even as the gunman fired more shots and children inside the classroom, he was holed up frantically called 9-1-1.
Top police officials now admit it was a mistake to not engage the shooter earlier. Have a listen.
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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Why was this decision made not to go in and rescue these children?
COL. STEVEN MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: the on-scene commander considered a barricaded subject and that there was time and there were no more children at risk.
Of course, it wasn't the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Parents of the victims obviously outraged at these missteps, with one father telling CNN he wonders if his daughter and others might have survived if authorities had actually acted more quickly.
And we now know the names and the faces of all 21 lives cut short, with funerals set to begin next week. The Texas governor says police have a lot to answer for. CNN's Ed Lavandera picks up the story from here.
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GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): I was misled. I am livid about what happened.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Explosive reaction from the Texas governor to new information about law enforcement's response on the day of the Uvalde shootings.
ABBOTT: The information they was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate. I'm absolutely livid about that. And it is imperative that the leaders of the investigations about exactly what happened get down to the very seconds of exactly what happened with 100 percent accuracy.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Governor's press conference coming after the Texas Department of Public Safety said police were wrong in waiting to go in and eliminate an active shooter after he started killing students and teachers.
MCCRAW: It was a wrong decision, there is no excuse for that. Texas embraces active shooter training, active shooter certification. Every officer lines up, stacks up, goes and finds where the rounds are being fired at and keeps shooting until the suspect is dead, period.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The decision to back down from an active shooter was, according to officials, made by the school district's chief of police.
MCCRAW: The incident commander at the time was believed, you know, that in fact was a barricaded subject, that we had time, no kids were at risk.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The admission comes after he laid out the timeline that day, 11:27 am, the teacher he said had propped open a door to go outside and grab a cell phone. Then the gunman fired shots at two people near the school grounds.
MCCRAW: There's multiple shots fired at the school at 11:32; 11:33, the suspect begins shooting in the room 111 or 112. At 11:35, three police officers entered the same door as the suspect entered.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Gun fire continued while as many as 19 agents were still in the hallway but didn't go in the classroom until a janitor brought the keys. Second grader Edward Silva was in his classroom when the shooting started.
EDWARD SILVA, SECOND GRADER: At first, they sounded like something like was popping. Like kind of like fireworks.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Just after 12:00, the 9-1-1 calls began from a child inside the classroom, where shots were fired.
MCCRAW: She identified herself and whispered she's in room 112.
At 12:10, she called back, adviser, multiple dead; 12:13 pm again, she called on the phone; 12:16 pm called back, eight to nine students alive; 12:21 pm you could hear over the 9-1-1 call three shots fired; 12:36 pm, 9-1-1 call lasted 21 seconds, initial caller called back, student, child called back, told to stay on the line and be very quiet.
She told 9-1-1 he shot the door. Approximately 12:43 pm and 12:47 pm she asked 9-1-1 to please send the police now.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo was inside the class with the gunman, her aunt said she had to save herself.
BLANCA RIVERA, MIAH'S AUNT: Miah got some blood, put on herself and she pretended she was dead.
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LAVANDERA (voice-over): By the time the tactical team breached the classroom and killed the shooter, he had been in the room for more than an hour.
LAVANDERA: While the Texas governor says he was misled, he would not say who gave him the bad information. CNN has also made multiple attempts throughout the day to reach the Uvalde ISD police chief. We have not been able to find him.
We did ask the superintendent of the schools and the city mayor if they thought that the ISD police chief and the city police chief should resign or be fired. Both men refused to answer that question -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Uvalde, Texas.
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HOLMES: And joining me now from Los Angeles, retired FBI supervisory special agent Steve Moore.
It is hard to know where to begin on this. Police say they thought there were no more children alive in the classroom and so they waited outside. You have 9-1-1 calls coming from the kids, there is gunshots going on, kids still alive.
How could that even happen?
STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, it can't. If they had followed active shooter protocol, none of that would have been true.
When you have three officers in the hall, the minimum you go with is one. If you get two, you feel good and if you get three, you are doing well. Those officers should have continued down toward the sound of the shots and eliminated the shooter.
The problem with him saying we didn't think any more kids were alive, that was 45 minutes after they stopped doing what they should have done.
HOLMES: Exactly. Meanwhile, that wasn't the last of the shooting. Do you think children actually died because law enforcement didn't act
properly?
It certainly looks that way. The ones still being shot, of course but also wounded in there, not being helped, who perhaps bled out?
MOORE: Let me tell you, I responded to one active shooter at a school. And the shooting was over and the shooter had gotten off the property almost immediately. I believe there were 5-7 people shot, five of them who were 5 years old.
And one of them would not have lasted another five minutes. The rest of them, I doubt would have lasted 30 minutes. So for them to delay an hour, I find it hard to believe that lives couldn't have been saved. As you say, there was another round of shots at 12:20 or so. Those kids would not have even been injured.
HOLMES: Yes, it really defies belief. It is interesting, you know, the press conference today, as we all listened to it, it was lengthy. But the sobering fact is it was shorter than the time the shooter was in those classrooms, shooting kids while, for much of that time, police were literally outside.
What failures do you see with how law enforcement responded and what needs to change?
MOORE: Well, like you said earlier, I don't even know where to start. There is a policy -- oh, by the way, I want to say to Steve McCraw, the director of DPS for Texas, thank you for finally being honest. Thank you for being brutally honest and painfully honest. That took courage.
But everything was -- everything was wrong. They are all trained. They are all trained on active shooter response. You go to the sound of the shooting, you stop the shooting.
What do we do if the people we have trained won't go in?
That is the main thing.
Why have a policy if you are not going to follow it?
You know, secondarily, you could put higher power guns in the car, maybe some better ballistic protection. But the main thing is, go do your job.
HOLMES: And the Texas lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, said, the massacre, he said, "Evil will always walk amongst us."
Now that is true and mental health is almost always raised in the situation. But only in the United States does evil and the mentally ill have virtually unfettered access to military-style high-powered rifles, high powered ammunition.
Can you see a need for that to change in the U.S.?
He was equally matched with the cops.
MOORE: It's -- he was -- you know, except for numbers, he had firepower superiority over them.
But no reasonable person can look you in the face without giggling and say we don't need to change this. Obviously the mentally ill, the schizophrenic, the violent people, the felons, they can't have access to these -- any type of weapons, much less stuff like this. That has to change.
We as a nation have to find middle ground. Both sides have to move toward the middle.
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MOORE: And we are going to have to invent some ways of finding threats that are out there and prohibiting and sequestering them from having firearms.
HOLMES: There is no more mental illness in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world but it's just that they have access to guns.
MOORE: Right.
HOLMES: To that point, we're going to where here in the United States right now but all around the world as well -- and those outside this country do not understand the ease of gun access and the lack of rules on things like concealed carry. There are no rules in many states.
Teenagers buying weapons like AR-15s at 18 before it is legal to have a beer. More guns than people in the U.S.
Just how entrenched are guns and guns culture in American society?
Because the rest of the world shakes their head.
MOORE: Yes, I can understand that. I don't think I could adequately explain it to somebody who hasn't lived in the United States and learned what our culture is like. I can't explain pickup trucks. I can't explain so much of the American society.
But this is ingrained. It is interwoven into American culture. It is part of what many Americans consider the thing that makes America free for them. It is part of their view of America and it is ingrained in society. I mean, everybody around the world has seen Westerns. Those are just fiction, based on real -- the real world back then.
HOLMES: But so many of these mass shootings, I tweeted out at the time, I'm not shocked anymore. I'm horrified but I'm just not shocked anymore. There will be another one.
Steve Moore, got to leave it there, unfortunately. Good to see, thanks, Steve Moore. Appreciate it.
MOORE: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A fourth grader who survived the massacre is now sharing chilling details of what she saw that day. Listen as CNN producer Nora Neus describes her exclusive conversation with 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo.
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NORA NEUS, CNN PRODUCER: She says the shooter looked one of her teachers in the eye, said, "Good night," and then shot her. Then he opened fire, shooting the other teacher and a lot of Miah's friends. And she heard screams and then heard him shooting in that classroom, heard a lot of gunshots.
After the shots stopped, though, she says he started playing music, sad music.
I asked her, you know, "How would you describe it?"
And she said, "It just was sad like you want people to die."
She says she actually put her hands in the blood from her friend who lay next to her -- she was already dead -- and then smeared the blood all over herself all over her body so that she could play dead.
She told me that she assumed the police just weren't there yet. But then afterward, she heard the grownups say that the police were there but waiting outside. And that's the first time that she really started crying in the interview. She'd been pretty stoic up until then.
But that's when she started crying, saying she just didn't understand why, like they didn't come in and get her.
"Why wouldn't they come in?"
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HOLMES: Miah was too scared to speak on camera or to a man, for that matter, after her horrific experience; entirely understandable. But she did want to share her story and hopefully help prevent this from happening to other children.
Ukraine's president says, even if the Russian army destroys everything, the Donbas will remain Ukrainian and it will be rebuilt. We'll bring you his latest message after the break.
Also Russian troops might be gone from some villages but they are not forgotten. CNN visits one town where a notorious Russian brigade terrorized residents for weeks.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
Ukraine's military admits it is outmanned and outgunned in Eastern Ukraine as Russian troops advance in the Donbas. But it denies the Ukrainian held city of Sievierodonetsk is surrounded. They say the Russians have moved into the city's outskirts but can't proceed any further.
Ukraine also says Russian crews are repairing damaged rail lines near Kharkiv to facilitate the shipment of crucial supplies to Russian troops in the Donbas.
Now to halt the Russian advance, Ukraine is urgently asking the West for multilaunch rocket systems that have far greater range than the howitzers they have already been given.
The Pentagon confirms it is looking at the request but no decision has been made. Now despite facing enormous difficulties in the Donbas, Ukraine's president remains confident his military will prevail.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): That is why we have to increase our defense, increase our resistance and Donbas will be Ukraine again, even if Russia will bring all suffering and ruination to Donbas. We will rebuild every town, every community. There is no real alternative.
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HOLMES: The withdrawal of Russian forces near Kyiv is revealing more evidence of war crimes. CNN's Melissa Bell with our report.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Russian tanks entering the village of Lypivka in late February. Now in charge here of life and of death.
Six weeks later, now back in control of the village, Ukrainian authorities begin counting the dead.
"I can't look," says one mother.
It was only after the tanks had withdrawn that Ukrainian prosecutors were able to start piecing together what had happened. They now suspect these men of crimes in violation of the rules and customs of war.
RUSLAN KRAVCHENKO, UKRAINIAN REGIONAL PROSECUTOR (through translator): On this street, nine soldiers of the 64th Brigade imprisoned unarmed civilians.
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KRAVCHENKO (through translator): They detained and tortured them for 10 days, inflicting bodily harm and carrying out mock executions.
BELL (voice-over): We wanted to see for ourselves where some of these alleged crimes may have been committed. Going door to door with pictures of the soldiers, we meet Andriy (ph), who recognized one of them.
BELL: Is it locked?
BELL (voice-over): He leads us down to a cellar, where he says Russian soldiers tried to kill a group of men and women who had been hiding.
They used grenades and rifles, he says. But the civilians managed to survive by heading further into the darkness.
BELL: This is the scene of just one of the alleged crimes of the men of the 64th Brigade. It is littered with cigarettes and bullet casings.
BELL (voice-over): Back in Lypivka, we show Mikolaus Nak (ph), a local resident, a picture of commander Vasyl Lytvynenko. He recognizes him immediately and invited us into what is left of his home.
He and his family hid in the woods, he says, while his home was destroyed by the Russian artillery that killed his neighbor. When he tried to come back, he says the commander seemed surprised.
He said, "What are you doing here? You should have been burnt alive."
Mikolaus (ph) still doesn't know why he decided to let him live.
IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA, PROSECUTOR GENERAL OF UKRAINE: Rape enough people, torture enough people, for what?
Because they wanted to scare civilians, scare our citizens of towns, villages, cities.
BELL (voice-over): After withdrawing from the Bucha area, the brigade's men were promoted by Moscow. The Kremlin denies any involvement in the mass killings.
The 64th Brigade was created after the Georgian war, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
"The soldiers of this barricade," he says, "were noted for the robberies and rapes. But instead of bringing order to the brigade, the Russian command armed it," he explains, "with modern weapons and sent it into Ukraine."
Beyond working out exactly what the Russian soldiers who occupied this area north of Kyiv might have been responsible for, the big question for Ukrainian prosecutors now is where they are -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Kyiv.
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HOLMES: The NRA is taking heat for holding its convention in Texas just days after the Uvalde shooting. Protesters are making their voices heard outside the venue. We'll have a report when we come back.
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HOLMES: And returning now to our top story, there's outrage and confusion in Uvalde in Texas after officials again revised the details and timeline of Tuesday's horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School.
On Friday, authorities revealed 77 minutes passed between the time the gunman entered the school to when a tactical team finally entered the classroom, where the 18-year-old gunman was holed up with children and two teachers.
We've also learned that, while officers were waiting in the hallway, students locked inside the room with the shooter called 9-1-1, pleading for help. Officials now admit that major mistakes were made.
Meanwhile the two funeral homes in Uvalde say they will cover arrangements for all 21 victims at no cost to the families, 19 children and two teachers, whose lives were cut far too short by gun violence.
U.S. President Joe Biden has developed a reputation as a comforter in chief after recent tragedies and he'll be lending a sympathetic ear again this weekend when he meets with the families of the victims of this massacre. But he's also bringing a tough message about the needs of gun reform. CNN's Phil Mattingly reports from the White House.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The Uvalde, Texas, community is still grappling with the horrific, devastating events that transpired on Tuesday. It's just a few days ago; it feels like weeks or months at this point, given how much has come out in that time.
But they will receive a visit from the President of the United States and the first lady on Sunday. President Biden will travel to Uvalde, will travel to the scene of the horrific murder of 21 individuals, 19 of those individuals children. He's expected to meet with community leaders, with religious leaders.
But most importantly when you talk to White House officials, the president and the first lady are expected to meet privately with the family members of those who were murdered. It's the type of event that the president has lamented many times during his time in office happens too often.
It was in a Buffalo grocery store just a little bit more than a week ago. There have been shootings at parishes, shootings at schools, shootings at grocery stores. And once again, the president has to come and try and show compassion, empathy, to listen, to grieve with those families, try and provide some sense of support.
That is exactly what he'll be planning to do when he arrives at the scene on Sunday. Now White House officials made clear this is happening with the backdrop of ongoing negotiations about potential new gun restrictions, something that many lawmakers, many presidents have tried and failed over the course of the last several years.
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MATTINGLY: There's no sense that anything is imminent or that this time is different, despite President Biden's urging repeatedly in public comments, that this time must be different.
However, bipartisan negotiations are underway. The president is expected to address those negotiations in his push to get something done while he's down in Texas, likely to repeat those urgings when he comes back to Washington later next week.
But the real question remains, as the president goes down to try to give some sense of comfort to families dealing the most horrific of tragedies, whether or not anything from a policy perspective, after years of failings, can actually come from it -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
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HOLMES: While the shock of the shooting in Texas is still fresh in the minds of Uvalde's residents, Buffalo, New York, hasn't even finished burying the victims of its mass shooting two weeks later. Funerals were held yesterday.
And in the coming days the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband will attend the memorial service for one of the victims, 86- year-old Ruth Whitfield.
The White House says they'll also meet with the families of the other victims. Remember, a gunman killed 10 people at that supermarket in Buffalo. Officials say he was motivated by racism.
One after the other.
Despite the mass shooting days earlier in Uvalde, the top gun lobby in the U.S., the National Rifle Association, well, it forged on with its annual convention on Friday in Houston, just a few hours down the road. As CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports, passions flared inside and outside the event.
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PROTESTERS: Shame on you!
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the nation's bitter divide over guns, a tale of two America's on vivid display in Houston. Outside the convention of the National Rifle Association protesters of all ages pleading for an end to the string of deadly shooting massacres. Inside the hall, thousands gathering in support of the Second Amendment and praising the politicians who say guns are not the root cause of the evil slaughter.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: And unlike some I didn't disappoint you by not showing up.
ZELENY (voice-over): As several Republican leaders backed away from attending the NRA meeting, former President Donald Trump came to voice his support for a group under siege in the wake of this week's Texas school shooting.
He read a list of victims with a tolling bell between each name. Trump took the stage to Lee Greenwood's classic, "God Bless the USA," even though Greenwood chose to stay away and not perform at the NRA out of respect for the families.
The school massacre in Uvalde, only three days and 300 miles away from the NRA convention in downtown Houston. Despite outcry as a protest, the show went on, with Trump leading the charge to change the subject.
TRUMP: If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe at home.
ZELENY (voice-over): Texas Senator Ted Cruz rejected any new gun control measures, renewing his call to fortify schools with armed police officers or retired service members.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or infringing on the rights of our law abiding citizens.
ZELENY (voice-over): His fellow Texas Senator John Cornyn declined to attend the NRA meeting and has pledged to have at least an open dialogue with Democratic senators searching for solutions to the country's epidemic of gun violence.
Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, now a Democratic candidate for governor said it was time for all Americans to unite behind the solution.
BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX) GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You are not our enemies. We are not yours. We extend our hands open and unarmed, in a gesture of peace and fellowship, to welcome you, to join us, to make sure that this no longer happens in this country.
ZELENY (voice-over): While a majority of Americans support some form of tighter gun restrictions, the view of longtime NRA member Elizabeth Tom underscores the sentiment that echoed throughout many conversations here.
ELIZABETH TOM, NRA MEMBER: I know this may be somewhat controversial and I certainly don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but if any of those teachers had been armed this might have ended a lot quicker. ZELENY: There is one gun manufacturer that is not here called Daniel Defense. They were the manufacturers of that AR-15 used in the Uvalde shooting. There simply is an empty space where their vendor was supposed to be.
The company said they didn't think was an appropriate time to be selling their merchandise. Instead, it's replaced by a popcorn stand -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Houston.
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HOLMES: Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst and senior editor with "The Atlantic." He joins me now.
Good to see you, Ron. Let's talk about the Republicans. Mitch McConnell has given his side the go-ahead to participate in talks on gun legislation.
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HOLMES: But what does history teach us about what Republicans actually do versus say, until, inevitably, the focus shifts away from the latest outrage?
How much is short term fear to fend off longer term change?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: That's exactly that. Historically, we have been on this ride before. And opponents of gun control have always found that one of their most potent weapons is delay, to try to push back action, to engage in discussion that allows the immediate firestorm to dissipate.
And I would say, the overwhelming likelihood is that this will -- these conversations in the Senate will not (INAUDIBLE) anything. And if they do it will be something at the very far end of tangential relevance to the core problems.
There are not 10 Republican votes even for universal background checks, which have something like 90 percent support at times. It's hard to believe that there are 10 votes for anything more biting than that.
HOLMES: It's interesting. You mention that statistic. I was reading a 2018 poll by Guns Down America, that advocacy group. It found 67 percent of Americans support strict laws; overwhelming majorities, including Republican, support things like requiring a license to purchase a hand gun, a limit on gun purchases, even gun buyback programs.
Explain for those watching outside the U.S., given those numbers, why so many elected representatives of the people who took that poll won't do any of those things.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I think gun control really crystallizes a broader problem that we are experiencing in the U.S., which is the crisis of majority rule or, looking at it the other way, the crisis of minority rule that we are facing.
As you note, there is broad public support for many of the steps that gun control advocates want to take. That doesn't mean that people think that limiting access to guns is going to completely eliminate the problem of gun violence in the U.S.
But they think these are steps worth taking. Two-thirds of the country in Poland, just this week, as well as last year, so not necessarily influenced by immediate events, supports a ban on assault weapons. Roughly two-thirds supports a ban on high capacity magazines.
These ideas are supported not only by a majority of Democrats, including Democratic gun owners, but they're also supported by a majority of Republicans, who don't own guns. The only large group in the country that opposes these ideas are Republican gun owners.
Yet, what has happened is, as the Republican Party, broadly speaking, in the Trump era has grown more dependent on rural and small town areas, more dependent on the culturally conservative voters, the NRA has essentially won the argument in the party that any action to restrict access to guns is a sign of disrespect for the cultural values of America.
And as a result, its smaller, preponderantly rural, heavily white states that Republicans dominate have a veto over national policy through the filibuster. And that prevents this national majority of opinion from been able to execute its policies.
I know you wrote about that years ago, how the smaller, whiter gun- owning states, because they get the same number of senators, have dominated this, even though they represent fewer people in this debate.
You mention the NRA. We've got the NRA conference going on. The former president was there, the Texas governor, Cruz was there and others.
What does that tell you about the influence the NRA still has on U.S. politics?
It's 5 million members in a nation of 330 million.
BROWNSTEIN: So the NRA as an institution is clearly the (INAUDIBLE). They're having all sorts of financial scandals, under investigation, their leadership is facing allegations of misusing funds.
But their influence in the Republican Party if anything is growing for the reasons I said. There's geographic and demographic resorting of the party that we've been living through for the last 25 years or so, which really accelerated in the Trump era, has made Republicans even more dependent than they used to be on the kind of voters the NRA says it represents.
And what's happened is that the party -- go back to the '90s. When Reagan passed the assault weapon ban in 1994, 38 House Republicans voted for it; 54 House Republicans voted for the Brady bill that's up on national background checks system in the U.S.
But as the party has evolved, those positions have become untenable. And even the NRA is institutional and weaker in many ways, it is operationally stronger because the party is even more dependent than it used to be on the kind of voters that it says it represents.
HOLMES: Yes, really a lot to say about the country when you've got something that a majority of people want and their elected representatives will not do it.
[02:40:00]
HOLMES: Ron, always, good to see you. Thanks so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me, Michael.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Quick break here on the program. When we come back, as the world comes to grips with the horror of the Texas school shooting, we'll remember those 21 lives lost in another senseless tragedy.
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HOLMES: What we see here are the pictures taken just outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in Texas, people leaving flowers. You can see the white crosses there, all in remembrance of those 19 children and two adults, killed when a gunman opened fire in their school.
Now there were funeral services set to begin next week for the victims of this massacre. On Friday, the community coming together for a vigil to honor the lives that were lost.
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HOLMES: CNN's Gary Tuchman is in Uvalde and has more on how those who died are being remembered.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here in downtown Uvalde, Texas, a church choir offering comfort in a city park, right next to a makeshift memorial that has been set up. This memorial is very sad but also very necessary.
This is a very small city but thousands of people have turned out here to take a look, to be together, to offer comfort to each other. There are 21 crosses with the names of the 19 children and the two teachers who were killed.
Right here the cross of Eva Mireles. She was one of the teachers. You can see the blooms, the flowers and the messages written on her heart.
"You are a hero. You are truly a hero. I love you."
And then the children's crosses. Annabelle Rodriguez has Minnie Mouse here, candles, dolls, flowers.
And here, "You are missed," from her friends.
And this from a cousin that says, "My prima" -- prima is cousin in Spanish -- "I miss you. Until we meet again."
This is desperately sad but there are so many people here who've come not just from the city but from other parts of Texas and other parts of the United States to offer comfort to many family and friends who are here right now, who are in mourning -- this is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Uvalde, Texas.
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HOLMES: Well, the sports world is reacting to the Texas school shooting. Coming up, we'll look at who's speaking out and what they're saying to politicians in Washington. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
Athletes and professional sports teams are making their voices heard after the horrific Texas school shooting, whether through in-game tributes, news conferences or social media. They're demanding action from Washington. "CNN SPORT's" Andy Scholes with the details.
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ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT CORRESPONDENT: In the wake of what happened in Uvalde, sports figures and teams have been using their voice to advocate for change. The Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr, on the day of the shooting, was very emotional, demanding politicians do more.
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STEVE KERR, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS HEAD COACH: When are we going to do something?
I'm tired -- I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington, who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we, the American people, want.
They won't vote on it because they want to hold onto their own power. It's pathetic. I've had enough.
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SCHOLES (voice-over): On Wednesday, the Heat and Celtics held a moment of silence for the lives lost. And then their public address announcer delivered this message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling (202) 224-3121 to leave a message, demanding their support for common sense gun laws. You can also make change at the ballot box. Visit heat.com/vote to register and let your voice be heard this fall.
SCHOLES (voice-over): The Warriors, a very similar message advocating for common sense gun laws before game 5 of the Western Conference finals. Kerr again speaking out that day, saying, "We as a country need to start thinking of gun control as a public health issue."
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KERR: For whatever reason, it's a political issue. But it's really a public health issue. So as soon as we can just shift the dynamic to this being a public health issue, then you get momentum.
So what I'm asking people to do is to get involved in their local communities. I've got lots of friends who are Democrats, Republicans. And all I know is that they all want gun violence to go away.
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SCHOLES (voice-over): The Yankees and the Rays in Major League Baseball meanwhile, teaming up. Instead of tweeting about their game, they presented facts about gun violence in our country.
The Rays adding, "This cannot become normal. We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes.
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SCHOLES: Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, meanwhile, says politicians have failed the country.
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DAVE ROBERTS, L.A. DODGERS MANAGER: How there can be a bipartisan consensus on an issue like this is very disheartening. It's very irresponsible by our nation's leaders. And something needs to be done and be proactive about it because like everyone has said, enough is enough.
When is enough enough?
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SCHOLES: LeBron James tweeting that, "There simply has to be change. Has to be."
While NFL Network's Rich Eisen made a passionate plea for something to be done.
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RICH EISEN, NFL NETWORK: We cannot give up. We cannot give up as a society and we cannot give up on giving our two cents and keeping the pressure on those in power, who do nothing about it.
Children murdered in their classroom, murdered, in their classroom. And you're already seeing the responses from those in power, who refuse to do anything about it.
[02:55:00]
EISEN: Saying it's about anything else other than easy legal access to assault weaponry.
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SCHOLES: And sports teams and figures have in the past been very powerful helping to enact social change. And they're once again using their platform to try to make a difference.
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HOLMES: And if you would like to offer your support for those affected by the Texas school shooting, just go to cnn.com/impact.
And thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN. Do stay with us. Paula Newton has more news in just a moment. Your favorite Canadian is here.
