Numerous reporters were trying to cover the Uvalde families laying their children to rest after the school shooting on May 24th and were prevented from going near the cemetery by bikers who claim they were working with police..
On Thursday, June 2, Houston Chronicle health reporter Julian Gill attempted to cover the funeral proceedings in Uvalde when he was met with resistance from a group of bikers.
The Uvalde Police Department reportedly asked biker groups to keep journalists in line during funeral for a victim of last week’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
At least three biker groups were among roughly 100 mourners gathered outside Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary on Thursday for the funeral of 10-year-old Eliahana Torres, one of 19 children killed in the shooting Uvalde police officers and members of the biker groups reportedly threatened to arrest journalists if they left a designated area across the street from the mortuary. It was not clear whether any attempts were made to leave the area.
Dozens of bikers from at least three clubs — Guardians of the Children, Thin Blue Line LEMC, and Marines MC — were assisting the police and firefighters in creating a boundary to prevent reporters from getting on the property.
The blockade involved police officers and firefighters from Uvalde, Allen, Pearland, Conroe, and Lubbock. They made a perimeter around Rushing-Estes Knowles Mortuary, Sacred Heart Memorial Church, and the Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery and threatened to arrest reporters if they stepped near the cemetery grounds, the report says. A few of the bikers also stood in front of the cemetery.
Outside the funeral proceedings for Eliahna Torres, one of the 19 children that were killed in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, another unidentified biker club member said, “We are out here to provide a little bit of comfort and support for the families, we just want to give the families a safe and peaceful space.”
Some of the bikers also “physically obstructed cameras within those designated areas and followed reporters,” while demanding that journalists “stay on the sidewalk,” according to the another article by the Houston Chronicle. A member of the biker club Guardians of the Children reportedly said that they had been asked to attend the funeral by Uvalde police.
