Holly MatkinUvalde, TX – A Texas state representative revealed during testimony before a state House committee late Tuesday that the killer used the victims’ blood to write “LOL” on the whiteboard inside the classroom where the deadly shooting occurred.
“The attacker scooped up the blood of his victims and smeared it into his disgusting message,” Representative Joe Moody (D-El Paso), who participated in the investigation into the Robb Elementary School massacre, said, according to WNBC.
“What he wrote in innocent blood next to that was the phrase ‘LOL’,” Moody added.
Family members of the victims who attended the hearing gasped and sobbed after the chilling new detail was revealed.
The victims’ families waited for hours to testify before the committee, which is considering a bill that would raise the age requirement for buying many semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21, NBC News reported.
The hearing continued into early Wednesday morning.
Many angry family members told the committee they believe the massacre would have been avoided if the proposed law had been in place, NBC News reported.
The killer was 18 years old.
“The attacker scooped up the blood of his victims and smeared it into a disgusting message. What he wrote … was the phrase ‘LOL.’”
— Texas State Rep. Joe Moody (D) shared a new detail about the Uvalde school shooting during an emotional hearing with victims’ families Tuesday pic.twitter.com/3J9g5oKZFK
— The Recount (@therecount) April 19, 2023
Under the terms of the bill, individuals would need to be at least 21 years old to purchase semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines and a caliber larger than .22, NBC News reported.
Exceptions would be made for military members, law enforcement officers, and members of the military who have received an honorable discharge.
According to a scathing 77-page report released by a Texas House of Representatives investigative committee in July of 2022, 376 law enforcement officers responded to the school as the 18-year-old gunman carried out his attack inside a fourth-grade classroom on May 24, 2022, the Associated Press reported.
It took police 77 minutes to storm the classroom and fatally shoot the gunman.
Nineteen children and two teachers were murdered in the massacre.
At least 17 other victims were wounded.
The delayed and chaotic law enforcement response to the mass shooting has been blamed on a lack of leadership and communication failures.
