But hours later, Uwalde Mayor Don McLaughlin criticized the MRF’s lack of transparency and accused its director, Colonel Stephen McCrow, of deliberately minimizing his agency’s mistakes.
“Colonel McCrow continues to lie, leak, mislead or misrepresent information, whether you want to call him or her, to keep his own soldiers and rangers from answering. “At every briefing, he misses the number of his own officers and the Rangers who were on site that day,” McLaughlin told residents at a city council meeting on Tuesday.
“Colonel McCrow has an agenda, and it’s not about giving a full report on what happened and giving factual answers about what happened to that community.”
Critics of the mayor added further turmoil to the tragedy, which has become an example of poor police governance and poorer communication. It has been nearly a month since an 18-year-old shooter killed 19 children and two teachers at Rob Elementary School. He remained in the classroom from 11:33 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., when police finally broke down the door and killed him, according to a DPS schedule.
However, the authorities have repeatedly changed their report on key facts about what happened in the rooms and what the police did in response during those 77 minutes.
Earlier on Tuesday, McCrow testified before a Texas Senate committee that law enforcement response was a “serious failure” and violated the generally accepted protocol to stop the shooter as soon as possible.
He accused Uwalde School District Police Chief Pedro Pete Aredondo, whom McCrow and others identified as the scene’s commander, of ordering police to wait in a nearby hallway for unnecessary equipment and keys to a door that wasn’t even locked.
“Three minutes after the subject entered the West Building, there were enough armed officers wearing bulletproof vests to isolate, disperse and neutralize the site,” he said. “The only thing stopping the corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander of the scene, who decided to put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children.
CNN contacted the Texas Department of Public Safety, the district attorney’s office, the chairman of the Texas House Investigative Committee and the FBI’s San Antonio office for further comment.
The mayor says he is disappointed with the lack of transparency
Aredondo, who was also elected a member of the city council this year, remained out of the public eye after the shooting. He testified behind closed doors to the Texas House Committee on Tuesday, but did not speak on the substance of the decision on the day of the shooting.
Despite his election to the municipal council, he has not yet appeared at the meeting. At Tuesday night’s meeting, council members unanimously denied him leave from future meetings.
Also at the meeting, McLaughlin noted that officers from at least eight law enforcement agencies were in the hallway outside the classrooms on the day of the shooting. McLaughlin said he was reluctant to run for office again and was “not hiding anyone”, saying all responsible agencies should be held accountable.
He said that the leak of certain pieces of information in the last few weeks “continues to create chaos in our community and does not allow the whole truth to come to light.”
He was particularly targeting what he said was a false report that local police were not cooperating with investigators, and expressed disappointment that he had been left in the dark.
“I’m just as disappointed – maybe not as disappointed as families who have lost loved ones – but I’m angry that I can’t give you answers or I can’t get answers,” McLaughlin said.
“The important thing for Uwalde is for these families with broken hearts and this grieving community to receive a full investigation and an accurate report of what happened that day. Petty fights, click title entries, and politically motivated scapegoats don’t help anyone. This divides the community and further disappointing grieving families, “he added.
McLaughlin said he should have received a daily briefing from the authorities from the beginning, but one was not provided.
“The gloves are off. As we know, we will share it. We will not hold back any longer,” he said.
McLaughlin has criticized the lack of transparency on the part of investigators before, saying at a city council meeting on June 7: “I don’t blame anyone,” he said. “One day we were told one thing, and the next day the story changed. For a week you were told that a teacher had propped up the door with a stone, and at the end of the week that story disappeared. These are the mistakes I am talking about, “he added.
The DPS director plans to release a video for the camera
Tuesday’s development came after reports from the CNN, Texas Tribune and Austin American-Statesman reviewed some of the DPS timeline and revealed additional shortcomings in police response.
Details of the first moments of the massacre include that 11 police officers were inside the building within three minutes after the shooter opened fire. Rifles and ballistic shields were available soon after, reports said. But 77 minutes passed from the moment the shooter started firing until a tactical response team entered the classroom and killed him, according to the DPS event schedule. Authorities said they believed the classroom doors were locked and were working to find a key, but no security personnel have yet been found who are testing the doors, according to reports. Earlier, Aredondo told the Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the commander of the incident and left his police radio and radio station on campus outside the school because he thought wearing them would slow him down.
Citing a DPS assessment, McCraw told a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday that Uvalde school police radios would not operate in the school building due to a weaker signal. Border Patrol agents had the only portable radio stations that could work, he said, but when the Border Patrol tried to connect its signals to local law enforcement devices, their radios did not work either.
McCraw said the DPS plans to release camera footage at some point.
“Once the district attorney approves it, we will release the entire body camera cover, we will release the entire video from the school and the video from the funeral,” he said.
CNN’s Andy Rose, Rosa Flores, Christina Maxuris, Amanda Musa, Rosalina Nives, Rebecca Rhys and Steve Almasi contributed to this report.
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