The Texas school police chief, criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history, said in his first extensive comments since the massacre, published Thursday, that he did not consider himself responsible until unfolds and suggests someone else has taken control of law enforcement response.
Pete Aredondo, 50, police chief in the Uwalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune that he deliberately left both police and radio stations on campus before entering Rob Elementary School.
An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers behind a locked classroom door that the boss said had been reinforced with steel hair and could not be kicked.
Poor radio communications are among the concerns raised about how police coped with the May 24 shooting and why they did not stand up to the gunman for more than an hour, even when tortured parents outside the school urged officers to enter.
Uwalde School District Police Chief Pete Aredondo. CBS 11 news
Separately, The New York Times reported on Thursday that documents show police waited for protective equipment as they delayed entering the campus, even when they realized some victims needed medical attention.
Aredondo told the Tribune that he used his mobile phone from the school corridor to call up tactical equipment, a sniper and keys to enter the classroom. He said he withdrew from the door for 40 minutes to avoid provoking a shooting, and tried dozens of keys brought to him, but one by one did not work.
“Every time I tried a key, I just prayed,” he told the Tribune.
More than two weeks after the shooting, Aredondo’s actions came under increased scrutiny by both government officials and experts trained to respond to mass shootings.
But Aredondo defended his actions and those of other law enforcement agencies, noting to the Tribune that “no responsible official has ever hesitated, even for a moment, to take risks to save the children,” Aredondo said. “We responded to the information we had and we had to adapt to whatever we were facing. Our goal was to save as many lives as possible, and removing students from classrooms from all involved saved more than 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before gaining access to the shooter and eliminating the threat. “
Stephen McCrow, head of the Texas Public Safety Department, said the school’s police chief, whom he described as the incident’s commander, had made the “wrong decision” not to order officers to break into the classroom more quickly. confront the armed man.
But Aredondo, who told the Tribune that he believes wearing radios will slow him down when he enters school and that he knows radios do not work in some school buildings, said he never considered himself the commander of the incident and did not has given no instruction that the police should not try to break into the building.
“I have not issued any orders,” Aredondo said. “I called for help and asked for a retrieval tool to open the door.”
Arredondo has not responded to repeated requests for interviews and questions from the Associated Press.
Aredondo’s bill and the records received from the Times were released on Thursday as law enforcement and government officials struggled to provide a precise schedule and details. They also made frequent corrections to previous statements, and no information about the police response has been officially released by investigators since the days after the attack.
According to documents obtained by the Times, a man whom investigators believe to be Aredondo can be heard on footage of the body’s camera, talking about how much time passes.
“People will ask why we are taking so long,” the man said, according to a transcript of police footage from the newspaper. “We’re trying to save the rest of our lives.”
According to the report, 60 police officers gathered at the scene, while four police officers entered. The two classrooms where the shooting took place included 33 children and three teachers.
Not all the victims were found dead when officers finally went inside: a teacher died in an ambulance and three children died at nearby hospitals, according to Times records, which include a review of law enforcement documents and videos collected. as part of the investigation.
The family of 10-year-old Xavier Lopez said the boy was shot in the back and lost a lot of blood while waiting for medical help.
“He could have been saved,” Leonard Sandoval, the boy’s grandfather, told the newspaper. “The police haven’t been in for more than an hour. He’s bleeding.”
Records from the Times offer other new details, including that shooter Salvador Ramos had a “hellfire” trigger designed to fire an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, more like an automatic weapon, but not . seems to have used it during the attack. According to documents, Ramos spent more than $ 6,000 to build an arsenal of weapons, including two AR-15 rifles, accessories and hundreds of rounds.
The Times reported that some of the officers who first arrived at the school had long weapons and that Aredondo learned the shooter’s identity while he was at school and tried to communicate with him through the closed doors of the classroom.
Eva Mireles, one of the slain teachers, called her husband, a police officer from the Uwalde school district, during the attack. Documents obtained from the Times show that Ruben Ruiz informed those in charge on the spot that his wife was still alive in one of the classrooms.
“She says she was shot,” Ruiz could be heard saying to other officers when she arrived at the school at 11:48 a.m., according to a Times camera transcript.
By 12:46 p.m., Aredondo appears to have given his approval for police to enter the room, the Times reported.
“If you’re all ready to do it, you do it,” he said, according to the transcript.
About a week after the shooting, public security officials said Aredondo was no longer cooperating with the agency and had not responded to requests for an interview from Texas Rangers, the agency’s investigative unit.
Aredondo’s lawyer, George E. Hyde, told the Tribune about Thursday’s story that Aredondo could not be interviewed the day the Rangers requested because he was covering shifts in his officers. Hyde said Aredondo was willing to cooperate with the Rangers investigation, but would like to see a transcript of his previous comments.
“It’s a fair thing to ask for before you have to discuss it again, because over time, all the information you hear is hard to keep right,” Hyde said.
School shooting in Uwald, Texas
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