The Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, who many are blaming for the slow law enforcement response to the school shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead, was confronted by CNN on Wednesday.
He refused questions outside his home.
Now, the embattled chief gave the orders to a dozen officers to wait in a hallway outside of where the active shooter was killing kids and teachers. New video by ABC released on Monday containing a 9-11 call in which the police dispatcher confirms they knew there were still children alive inside as well.
Arredondo has come under fire for not cooperating with a request for a follow-up interview with investigators with the Texas Rangers, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
He said the opposite to to CNN’s reporter, “I am in contact with DPS everyday.”
“We’re going to be respectful to the family,” the embattled police chief said outside his office to CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz. “We’re going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously.”
Arredondo was sworn into the city council privately without notice on Tuesday night. He said that they kept the swearing private out of respect for the victim’s families. He was reported to have shown up in person to the closed door event.
The mayor of Uvalde said that Arredondo was “duly elected” to city council and there was “nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office. To our knowledge, we are currently not aware of any investigation of Mr. Arredondo.”
So far, he has avoided the press and public statements since the attack. The statements CNN captured are the only two statements since the day of the massacre. He took no questions from the press on the day of, either.
This New Video Proves Uvalde Cops DID Know Kids Were Alive
If you remember, it was a Customs and Border Protection tactical team that killed Salvador Ramos, according to DPS. There were reports of police waiting at least 45 minutes before trying to breach the room where the shooter was.
A DPS Director Steven McCraw said that the “wrong decision” was made at the time to not kill the gunman sooner. The director said that the commanding officer did not treat the situation like an active shooter situation and treated it as if he was barricaded.
Post-Columbine law enforcement typically try and neutralize a shooter as fast as possible to prevent mass casualties. This was apparently not done in Uvalde.
Do you think Arredondo should be blamed for the slow response by law enforcement? Let us know your thoughts.
