Kerr County Sheriff Grilled By Reporter On 'Lapse' In Code Red Issuance Ahead Of Texas Flooding

Forbes Breaking News

At a press briefing on Wednesday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha was asked about a code red.

Transcript

00:00Okay, once again, just say your name, please, and who you are, and I had already called on you, so, yes, sir.

00:08Thank you, sir. I'm Ernie Zuniga with KSAT-12 in San Antonio.

00:11Question for the sheriff.

00:14The code red alert system has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent days,

00:18and now there's reports of a timeline on Friday morning

00:21where an Ingram volunteer fire department commander

00:25asked a Kirk County Sheriff Dispatcher for the code red to be issued.

00:32The dispatcher says, I can't, I have to get a supervisor's approval for that.

00:37Almost six hours passes until 10 o'clock when, 10.04, when the code red is issued.

00:44How do you account for that lapse of time?

00:46What happened and what could have happened in that time?

00:49As I said earlier, with every significant event, you know,

00:53we're going, with every emergency, you know, we're going to have to,

00:57there's going to be an after action.

00:59Please, y'all, listen to those words, after action, okay?

01:03Those questions are going to be answered.

01:05I believe those questions need to be answered to the family of the misled ones,

01:09to the public, you know, to the people that put me in this office.

01:13And I want that answer, and we're going to get that answer.

01:15And I know that's going to be asked over and over.

01:18Please understand that.

01:19You know, we don't have, we're not running, we're not going to hide from everything.

01:21That's going to be checked into at a later time.

01:24I wish I could tell you that time.

01:25I don't know that time.

01:26Let me share something with y'all.

01:27One of the main things I've been doing is going to visit the family.

01:30We still have some of those misloved ones here.

01:32I go visit them twice a day.

01:34You know, as a sheriff, you know what, what I want is I want closure for those people, okay?

01:39And those are important questions.

01:41Those are, we will answer those questions.

01:43I wish y'all would bear with me in that, okay?

01:46Bear with me.

01:47We'll get them.

01:48I can't tell you when, a week or two, okay?

01:50We're going to get them.

01:50I'm not trying to deflect them, okay?

01:52My primary, I mean, I ask you, I've been in this business 36 years.

01:56I don't know if any of y'all, how many of y'all have gave notifications, death notifications.

02:01I've done them.

02:02What is worse, a death notification or telling somebody I don't know where you're looking at?

02:06That's my priority, okay?

02:07Now, please understand.

02:08Okay.

Category

Transcript

Recommended