North Texas police officers head to Uvalde to help out
UVALDE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Several North Texas law enforcement personnel traveled down to Uvalde after the police department requested state-wide assistance to provide relief for their officers.
Fort Worth sent 12 members of its department to help out, including Lt. Chris Daniels.
"They experienced an absolutely tragedy, I don't know any other way that you can explain that," said Daniels.
The team got on the ground in Uvalde Friday evening.
"You can definitely tell that emotions are high. A lot of people, they are upset, obviously, about what has happened," added Daniels.
It didn't take long for the team to get to work as they provided relief for officers who have been up, in some cases, more than 24 hours according to Daniels. "So we immediately assigned six of our officers to go out and start relieving them and start rotating them out."
Their mission is to protect that community.
"Our focus was to make sure that we can provide a safe environment for these families and this community to grieve this loss. they just need some peace of mind and they need a little space and they don't need to worry about public safety," said Daniels.
Fort Worth is not alone among North Texas police departments in helping out. So far, police departments from Allen, Grapevine, North Richland Hills and Lake Worth have sent members to Uvalde.
Being in Uvalde for a day so far, Daniels can't help but look around and see how this tragedy impacted this small community.
"It's a terrible thing to see. I can't imagine what these kids went through, what the parents, teachers went through, and what the community is going through," said Daniels, "I stopped at the playground and just took it in for a minute and you can see the swing sets just no kids are on the playground. It's just quiet, it's calm. There's nothing going on out there."
They're in Uvalde to protect and serve that grieving community.
"Whatever little we can give, hopefully it helps," said Daniels.
The length of stay is to be determined as it's a day-by-day situation.
