Cruz criticizes O’Rourke on Dallas shooting: Wish he wasn’t ‘so quick to always blame the police officer’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) for saying a Dallas police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man in his own apartment should be fired, adding that he wished his challenger and other Democrats “weren’t so quick to always blame the police officer.”

“It’s possible what happened was a horrifying and horrific misunderstanding, or it may be something else,” Cruz told Fox 26 Houston in an interview aired on Sunday. “And that’s why we have a legal justice system, to actually learn what the facts are and learn what happened. I wish Beto O’Rourke and Democrats weren’t so quick to always blame the police officer, always attack the police officer.”

{mosads}The officer, Amber Guyger, earlier this month walked into the apartment of her neighbor Botham Jean, a black man, and shot him. She has claimed that she thought she was entering her own apartment and believed him to be an intruder.

At a rally last week, O’Rourke said Guyger should be fired, according to Fox 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth.

“I don’t understand, given the actions, how anyone can come to any other conclusion,” O’Rourke said when asked if Guyger deserves to be fired. 

Cruz said in his interview with Fox 26 Houston that “everyone is horrified by what happened,” but added that he doesn’t think “we should jump to conclusions.” 

“She may have been in the wrong. She’s facing legal proceedings and if a jury of her peers concludes that she behaved wrongly, then she’ll face the consequences,” he said, referring to Guyger. “But I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. It may have been just a horrific understanding with horrifying consequences.”