bongino show weekdays. and follow us on facebook and instagram. that does it for us on "unfiltered." we'll see you next saturday at 9:00 p.m. don't forget to set dvr if you can't make it live. welcome to cross country, i am lawrence jones. i'm coming to you tonight from texas, my home. on tuesday a nearby neighborhood most kids and teachers. being here has been almost too much for the heart to bear. i met with members of the community, clergy members, law enforcement and all others trying to make sense of this tragedy. my heart breaks for the moms and dads, grandparents, brothers and sisters of those lost in this

massacre. i saw more tears this week than i ever want to see ever again. my first guest tonight is the uvalde justice who was inside the crime scene and identified the victims. our first year of the night. >> how are you holding up? >> it's been tough, ups and downs from the time it happened to that evening, yesterday morning but it then tough. have been involved in the work of trying to get the paperwork to the medical examiner's office coordinating with funeral homes to ensure the bodies are released back to the funeral homes and brought back to the families here in uvalde, it's a full-time job and kept me busy so it's kept my mind off the reality of what happened to our

town. >> for those who don't know, what is your job entailed? >> will have a medical examiner, we are the corner so in most cases we handle deaths that are called unattended that's, from people not admitted into the hospital, people not admitting into a nursing home or hospice so anybody who dies outside of those, they will call as out and we are in charge of the death certificate and cause and manner of death so that's what we are called to do. >> walk me through the process. >> i knew there was an active shooter, the police department said there was a active shooter and soon after, that was probably around noon and the

next couple of hours all we heard was ambulance and tyrants the whole time moving people to the hospital, taking people, escorting buses. when i get the call out around 2:30 p.m. in the get to the scene and i make contact with strangers and district attorney, i was informed it was 16 to 17 people. it's unbelievable, my heart dropped, i couldn't believe what i was hearing. >> have you seen anything like this? >> never. we've been here all our lives. once they told me the number, there is a gap of about three hours before i went into the building because when i get to

the location around 2:30 p.m., by the time i go in and speak to the rangers, we said by 3:00 p.m. we made the position to go ahead and reach out to the chief medical examiner and i called her and visited her over the phone and told her what's going on. i had to send her an e-mail giving her permission and authority to come to uvalde county to assist us so i waited, i can go to the scene -- >> you waited? >> i waited until we could go together. you're talking somebody with a lot more experience, they do it on a day-to-day basis, every day. i waited for her to come down about two and a half hours. >> did you have any talks, did she prepare you for what you were about to see?

>> i prepared myself, i knew what was happening. >> what did you tell yourself? >> it's probably going to be the worst thing i could ever see and just mentally preparing myself but being professional because i was connected to the people of uvalde and they trusted me to do a professional job to take care of them and that's what i was going to do, be rangers and everybody stated most of it happened in one room but when first responders got there, they had to move kids to other rooms because they were trying to tend to the ones who needed medical attention, they were trying to go through that so when we get there, we went through four rooms and trying to get a plan together on what we were going to do to identify the children because they are in different rooms and we don't know who's in the roster for the room, we

don't know, they don't have id or driver's license or anything on them so the rangers and as agreed they would have someone at the civic center for the parents who have children not released, provide photos, description and what they were wearing that day and that's what we used to come back later on to identify the victims, there was news, we didn't get the news quickly enough but we were trying to verify with certainty that was the child there, we don't want to give somebody, they were kids airlifted to the hospital, we wanted to be clear on who was there. we still had to identify the

suspect as well and i'm the one in charge of the scene so you is not taken near the victims, he's held currently in a separate county in a morgue. we are waiting for the victims to be released in uvalde before we send in for the examination as respect for the victims. >> how difficult was that aspect, from a human aspect and legal duties? >> it's tough because you know what happened, you know he's there, he took innocent lives but it's my job to do the job i need to and it's going to get done, it's just out of respect

we separate it. >> you have to make that decision immediately when you went in, immediately separated from the victims? >> yes. that was done pretty much immediately. he was the last person to leave the scene. >> where do we go from here? >> try to heal. it's going to be a tough road, this doesn't affect just the family or those who lost the left one, it affects the whole community, everybody has ties to an individual who lost somebody and even if you don't have

anybody from afraid to have in your hometown, where you grew up, as a kid you rode your bike up and down the street in the middle of the night for whatever, he would never expect this to happen. i get phone calls and messages from former classmates who live outside uvalde that are heartbroken and they send their wishes but it will be a long road. when the cameras ease, we need assistance for counseling available for our people and help us through that and whatever school starts again in august again because school kids are out, they are out of school now it's not coming back so it's not like we can reach out to them and some of the cultures in south texas where we are, in

most places, people don't just ask for help. they say i'm okay but i'm going to need to visit, i will need to speak to somebody to let it out but it's tough but i'm going to hold it together for now because it's what we need to do but we have our ups and downs, i can feel their pain. >> tough. a tragic event. he's doing his best to help the community wounded so badly. next, law enforcement says the border patrol unit was involved in taking out the shooter. we speak to a former member of that elite group coming up on

back with another fox news alert, elite border patrol unit was involved in taking down the school shooter in uvalde. joining me now, former deputy chief of border patrol someone who has a unique perspective into that unit. thank you for joining me tonight. as someone who's covered the border for quite a bit, i have heard of this unit but never seen them in action, what can

you tell us? >> united states border patrol by legislation in 192460 years later in 1984 for tech border patrol tactical unit was formed. for all intensive purposes, it's locked chain but specialization that makes it unique such as tracking skills, interdiction activities and operating in rural and remote areas. since its inception in 1984, it's grown to over 200 members and i was in class number one in 1984 so i am proud to see its quality of training and equipment proved year-by-year as well as support from the headquarters.

weapon units in everything from precision shooting, scout and cyber training everywhere in the world in afghanistan tactical tracking skills to detect and advance or prevent from walking into ambushes in central and south america, west africa, counterterrorism and narcotics so unit is quite active all the time and coincidentally had some agents in the area at the time of this tragic incident and beautiful town such as uvalde texas, my heart goes out to the surviving families and first responders. this kind of tragedy is never forgotten.

>> i've been speaking with my sources and they have family members in that school, how are the agents, if you talk to them, how are they holding up? >> this is a tough thing, i am proud of the unit members including the start agent who responded to the scene, another specialized national level unit and stands for border patrols surgical trauma and rescue unit so it brings in medical personnel combined with tactical unit personnel. you also have dozens of local off duty and on duty reside in that community and have children in the school at the time who responded. i was told in the end over 80 border patrol agent responded to the scene.

>> unbelievable. they just want protecting the border but here in the homeland as well, we can't thank them enough for their service, thank you for coming on the program and giving us more insight, thank you. the community still in shock and horror over the tragic event that unfolded. i spoke to one of the communities passed on how uvalde is hoping to heal. >> you said there's kids you won't get the opportunity to hug again, what you mean by that? >> because they are gone and they sat in these chairs and they've heard me preach and i'm animated sometimes to keep the kids attention and they love it. >> we believe god is all-powerful and god allows all things that happen to happen. what do you tell your congregation when they ask why,

why did god allow this to happen? >> that is the big question, the question asked right now in this community, why? on this side of eternity we may never know why and we see the outcome of a man's heart because the bible says the heart is desperately wicked and no one knows our heart except god. >> do you think this moment is an exercise of faith, stretching the communities face? >> the church as a whole through tragedy and everything maybe, as people the in the church, a time of stretching and growth in the time of where we have to totally trust god with our lives and what is happening in our community. the light that shines in the

darkness here in uvalde texas, that's why the church is here, to show them god's love and god's grace is extending even in tragedy but to see their faces on the day of the shooting when you walk in there into the hospital when i stepped into that place, all i could give them was nothing but a prayer of hope and god will meet us there at that place and little did i know that day the news i would come back from the families and never wanted to hear they would lose their children we prayed that day and we believe god will day in lieu of the outcome tragically families lost their children. most teachers, we've lost

influential people in our and we have to stay strong and uvalde strong we are so tight as we will from this, we will mourn together and praying together and control and help, we will come along because those tired and weary and we will lift them up, carry them through this is a community because that's who we are as a family. >> what does america need to know about uvalde? >> america needs to know we need their prayers, support and if i may say this, we understand the

political side will be out there but i want america to know in america to remember the names of these children, i want america to remember the city, needs their prayers and name the names of these children, speaker names. >> say surnames to be expert is here is what we can do to prevent another mass

fox news alert, my next guest is a school security expert, he advises schools how to protect students and teachers, natural school safety and security services, thank you for joining us. i guess my focus is how do we prevent this from happening ever again or measures taken having

me, i appreciate your work. this is what we can do now, political debate is a direct focus on making schools safer, what are we doing and what to do and how can we do better tomorrow? the good news is we need to focus on because that prevents events, technology and equipment if we have access control and our doors and propped open the door, we made ourselves more vulnerable because of the human piece, not the equipment. i worked with the highest profile cases in civil litigation efforts in forensic analysis in san bernardino and half a dozen more cases and what we find is while facts and merits of the cases very, the

common thread is they involve allegations of people, policies, procedures, trading, human factors, not allegations, not failure of hardware and equipment. we have response measures in place and many pieces in terms of having lockdowns, evacuations, shelter in place drills, we focus on making sure we have mask mitigation systems, notification, parent reunification, things that happen after, i want more focus on the things that need to happen before hand, the best line of defense is a well trained highly learned staff and student body and the number one way with find out about weapon kids cause harm to themselves is through kids having relationships and trusting connections with adults they come forward to tell them because they know this, warning signs ahead of time, parents and grandparents come forward and give warnings of something going on. we have to build on those types

of things. the last piece of many things we can do is when we get the preventative mental health social emotional support for kids in school, training people, not only see something say something but do something, what are you doing, what you do if somebody comes forward in a timely manner? we are focused in training shifting to situational awareness getting people mindful and crowded and what's going on, pattern recognition, we know what's normal in cafeteria, was going on at the playground and what abnormal and how to react and how to make cognitive decisions under stress and we have to do more of that type of training with teachers and support staff who aren't used to it beyond the checklist of what to do afterwards. >> my question is, there's always going to be evil and i

don't see the same protection of banks or stadiums or you go to the airport, don't our kids at least deserve that? >> we do need reasonable security measures, single.of entry, making sure communications equipment, surveillance cameras and monitors, you have to think of -- i always ask the devil in the detail implementations, what unintended consequences? we talked about metal detectors and we know the people who work in the largest school districts in the country that have that on the day the date basis in many schools that do have them run them during the school day and after school with athletic performing arts and things that go on, community schools and community centers which we want, nobody runs them, you can plant something in the school and

coming the next morning and have a massacre or people outside standing to go through the medical detectors that are targeted or get people on the bus so it is striking the balance, it's always a struggle from the 30 years i've been there. >> i think we should exhaust all options after this week, they deserve better thank you, we appreciate it. coming up, could social media be used to stop school shooters before they pull the trigggg

welcome back to cross country. second time in two weeks we are learning social media posts should have raised red flags for family and friends before the mass shootings happens. how does that happen? work and social media companies do to help? former facebook analyst joins me

now. thank you for joining the program. can you go in to detail on what these social media companies can do to prevent this? it seems like it's happening way too often and they are not doing anything about it. >> there's a couple of ways they can look at this. as of 2017, facebook already had a program to automate this process. in the process called suicide algorithms, what they do is use artificial intelligence to go through the posts of their users. if they detect someone who is suicidal or expressing a desire to kill themselves, they alert authorities and instigates a wellness check from law enforcement so the things you do online can result in a knock on the door by local law enforcement. this has been in place for a while. figuring out how the muscle

memory works and applying it to things like active shooters not just suicidal ideation, that is one way i think these processes and timelines can be tightened a lot and can lead to more effective responses not just from law enforcement but social media companies themselves. >> how do you balance libertarian that i am, privacy versus safety? i want to do everything in our power to protect our young people, any life but you cannot tread on civil liberties as well so how do you strike the balance? >> exactly. i think it comes down to value. what's important for people to know is technology can be viewed with values. human beings are the ones coding algorithms and, these programs, they say use the first amendment as a guiding principle, moral standard for how they apply not just their policies but design

of the product, that's critical. start with american values, everything you said we hold dear that puts guardrails around privacy concerns because what bothers me the most what's going on here in social media companies is you look at youtube, in august of 2021 they stopped a lifestream, cut it off a pastor speaking at a gospel conference for content violation. what he was doing was putting out biblical truths, there are ways to automate these processes imbued with the values if they can knock a pastor off for exposing biblical views than they can probably do it in accordance with better values i think two other live streams so the matter of misaligned priorities, privacy, prioritized american values with guiding principles when you code and

program algorithms that automate these processes. >> my concern is, why haven't they already done this? like you said, if there's a post they don't like, within seconds it is off social media, why can't they do this when there's something that's clearly a violation to life, alert law enforcement? >> your guess is as good as mine. again, misplacing priorities, refocusing on things that are really important. we lived and died by the idea of real-world arm so foremost in our minds, i worked counterterrorism so anything is a terrorist attack or seems like there would be, we sprung into action. we have to prioritize real-world general and dress accordingly. maybe they take the eye off the ball to concerned with political censorship but they need to do counterterrorism and apply it to what's going on here, that would be much better and effective --

>> i think it needs the whole department and if they don't want a whole department, they need to behold liable, right now they are used by the guys harming innocent people, innocent lives so thank you for your insight, this helps hold them accountable. >> thanks, lawrence. >> from fbi special agent to talk about how law enforcement can better serve the public looking for red flags. thank you for coming on the program, you have valuable insight. we heard him say this, we heard him say that, we saw his post, he was troubled, he had a violent past and he was on our watchlist but they continue to just watch, not enough to prevent them from doing their tragic event. why? >> law enforcement is the second line of defense, i would advocate the community, the family, friends, people in

communication with the troubled person, whoever he is, a young person has an obligation to report when they see them cut themselves or bleed into a sink like this kid did a ride down the road videoing himself with a dead kat or other posts he did. the fbi and law enforcement can't surf the internet, they don't have the authority to do that, they have to have predication, a tip or lead from the public, privacy you talked about earlier, that's why. they just can't, "big brother" and we've had litigation over that in the past so that's kind of out but they do have an obligation to follow up aggressively and proactively when they do get a lead which they didn't do in parkland and we have seen this in other scenarios as well, what about the shooters out there glowing red? >> what about the parents?

and i know everyone thinks their child is an angel but you got the shooters mom literally doing an interview talking about don't judge him, what do you mean don't judge him? that his behavior that brought us this monster to kill these innocent lives. >> when i heard early on there were reports that there was nothing in this person's background that raised red flags, i didn't believe that for one second. every one of these mass shooters is glowing red, they don't just spontaneously combust one day and do something, there's always a lead up in this one probably had a pretty good lead up but here's the thing, he's 18, he's probably, i would go out on a limb and say probably a juvenile record we can't see right now and we will probably hear about it later and he's living with his grandparents, the same thing

with parkland shooter by the way living with grandparents, grandparents are not up to the task sometimes not paying attention, the fact he used a credit card and bought two of the highest and ar-15's you can put your hands on in 300 plus rounds of ammunition tells me somebody was asleep at the wheel, not to be too judgmental but somebody was asleep, maybe a couple people. >> you are hitting on something, we really have to listen to what you're saying, a lot of this goes to the breakdown of the family whether we like it or not, there is a common theme, a criminal profile, how can we stop this? should there be no consequences for parents, family members who don't report this behavior? >> possibly, it would have to be well-crafted as a lawyer, i flip to caution vote in that regard but i am big on the red flag

thing they had in york, it failed in new york with buffalo but i think we need to flex that muscle, it has to be exercised and when somebody is flashing red as i keep saying and law enforcement does get involved, probably with this young man as well, they need to use it and use it effectively. we got to that with domestic violence, restraining order goes out pretty quick and cops are tuned in, i think it's an area where not properly tuned in, we need to exercise them up a little bit. >> with got to wake up, the kids deserve better. thank you so much. nonprofit taking

welcome back to cross-country. an organization out of california taking a unique approach to helping americans veterans. take a look. >> 500,000 u.s. troops who served in wars over the past 13 years diagnosed with ptsd. veterans in california lost marine brothers to suicide, they knew they had to take action. through tragedy they formed this program that connects veterans

through offshore fishing expenses with the ultimate goal of raising awareness about suicide and mental health. i traveled to california to see the work they are doing firsthand. >> what you think it is about being out here fishing that changes the veteran mindset for columns them? >> the water itself a brotherhood, what is it? >> probably all of that stuff. we found out through what works and what doesn't work, everybody has their own modality dealing with anxiety or stress, everybody has that in their life and we found connecting the guys and women in safe space for the can do something, when you see the transformation, half the channel marker, you are forced

to disconnect. >> since 2014, hundreds of veterans have come together, three fishing trips thanks to save the brave. >> part of the retreat this year, where they want to serve as well, not just fishing. >> it's about connection, a lot of veterans come on our fishing trips, they haven't been connected to veterans in a long time, a lot of service members in a long time. a lot of times to get out of the military and get out and go home to texas, arizona, wherever they are from and forget or just lose contact with the guys who served with so calm and are fishing trip, join 'save the brave'.org, we are surrounded by military

bases, not only experience connection with their friends and military veterans but they get to experience being in a place where they trained once, in a location where they want deployed to a foreign country. that nostalgia is second to none. when you come to 'save the brave'.work and you drive through, you see the beauty of the military and what you've done and you take pride in the. >> there it goes. >> why is this important? >> we started this seven years ago like nonprofits form through tragedy, we flew a bunch of the marines to support the family in

iraq in the sixth and seven and wanted to do more. we came together and that was seven years ago and since then we've continued to grow and last year we did over 30 fishing trips, 200 plus veterans so to answer why is it important? is important to us because the end of every day, were not helping people if we are not helping ourselves so that the bumper sticker for what we do. we do this free, we don't want a salary, we just give back to our community. we understand you can fish, go hiking, horseback riding, we would like to thank 'save the brave'.org for doing our part, we are having fun doing it. >> what are you doing, don't you have something to do? [laughter] >> what's up, lawrence?

>> you guys are veterans. you are serving other veterans and they need a brotherhood. >> i think everybody needs a mission, 24 years in the marine corps to get that, everybody has to have a purpose in life. sometimes you lose that purpose and we are another one of the nonprofits that allow people dealing with stress in their lives, whatever it is, it builds up and build up and every once in a while you need that reset button and with the offshore program is an opportunity to hit the reset and go back. >> those who pay the ultimate price, they did pay the ultimate sacrifice for us but we don't talk about enough what life is like for veterans when they come back home, after they adapt to home life and what they struggle

with and dealt with in combat. we don't talk about that enough. >> i think we are in a better position with this generation than vietnam vets. one more thread to connect. we serve vietnam vets out here but we like to talk about prevention and we don't need to raise awareness, we need to prevent it. his brother kyle, creating opportunity for veterans, it's just one more piece to make an impact in people's lives. >> lots of respect for the work these gentlemen are doing. for more on this organization or to get involved, visit 'save the brave'.org. up next memorial day tribute for men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our

country and ourur

honor. this weekend as america comes to grip with the tragedy in texas, we come together united to honor the brave men and women in uniform who gave it all to keep this country safe. while we remember them, we must remind ourselves we have heroes among us that often exist in silence, heroes who may sit quietly in recliners holding onto stories far too painful to tell. heroes who sit on stools at a local vfw shoulder to shoulder with fellow veterans. why? it helps. others may be colleagues, classmates, law enforcement, all who have been on the frontline to protect us and far too many of them may have lost a brother or sister in uniform. this memorial day we remember

the fallen but we honor those who serve with them as well. we say thank you to all who risk their lives to protect moms, dads, grandparents, kids, family, friends and community. i've traveled across the community country, it's clear they don't think our recognition but this weekend they deserve it. stay strong america, thank you. [♪♪♪] brian: welcome to "one nation" on his red, white and blue weekend. i'm brian kilmeade. you may be prepared to fire up the grill and enjoy time with family and friends. it's a stark reminder that freedom isn't free. it's about memorial day.