Police chief blasts NRA, senators after cop's death

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In a fiery press conference Monday, Houston's Police Chief lashed out at the National Rifle Association and three top Republican lawmakers - including two from his state - after the recent death of one of his officers.

Thirty-two year-old police sergeant Christopher Brewster was fatally shot over the weekend after responding to a domestic disturbance call, allegedly by a man who was physically abusing his girlfriend.

His body was transported by police escort to a funeral home Monday.

Before the procession, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo called out the NRA and Senators Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz for failing to pass the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark 1994 legislation that lapsed earlier this year and has since stalled in the Senate.

(SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) HOUSTON POLICE CHIEF ART ACEVEDO, SAYING:

"We all know in law enforcement that one of the biggest reasons that the Senate and Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and others are not getting into a room and having a conference committee with the House and getting the Violence Against Women Act is because the NRA doesn't like the fact that we want to take firearms out of the hands of boyfriends that abuse their girlfriends. And who killed our sergeant? A boyfriend who abusing his girlfriend. So, you're either here for women and children and our daughters and our sisters and our aunts - or you're here for the NRA. So I don't want to see their little smug faces about how much they care about law enforcement when I'm burying a sergeant because they don't want to piss off the NRA. Make up your minds - whose side are you on? Gun manufactures, the gun lobby - or the children that are getting gunned down in this country every single day."

In a Twitter tiff last week, Senator Cornyn responded to a tweet of Acevedo's about the bill by saying, "Unfortunately, important legislation like this has fallen casualty to impeachment mania. We will keep trying to pass a bipartisan bill but it takes two (parties) to tango."

The funeral for Sergeant Brewster is planned for Thursday.