The hard-to-find key to a locked classroom door was the main reason police waited 77 minutes to enter Robb Elementary’s classroom to kill an armed man, stopping the massacre that killed 19 students and two teachers. shelling, ‘said the chief.
Uwalde Police School Chief Pete Aredondo, who was in charge of the May 24 massacre in Uwalde, Texas, offered the explanation in a new interview with the Texas Tribune, defending the delayed law enforcement response to the ouster of 18-year-old shooter Salvador. Ramos.
Aredondo has been scrutinized by critics who believe the lives could have been saved if police had acted more quickly and reached the wounded more quickly.
“No one in charge has hesitated to take a moment to save the children,” Aredondo told the newspaper. “We responded to the information we had and we had to adapt to whatever we were facing.
The door to the classroom where Ramos was was made of steel and could not be pushed, Aredondo told the newspaper. He spent more than an hour in the hallway trying dozens of keys.
“Every time I tried a key, I just prayed,” Aredondo told the Texas Tribune. “The only thing that mattered to me at the time was to save as many teachers and children as possible.”
People visit the memorials to the victims of the school shooting in Uwalde Square on May 26, 2022 in Uwalde, Texas. Getty Images
For the first 40 minutes, Aredondo said he was waiting to receive the set of keys. Meanwhile, he called for tactical equipment and a sniper, avoiding the gates, believing he could provoke Ramos to fire. Dozens of keys finally arrived, but none of them opened the door.
“My mind was to get there as quickly as possible, remove all threats and protect students and staff,” Aredondo said.
An hour and 17 minutes after Ramos started shooting to kill students with an AR-15-style pistol, police finally broke down the classroom door and killed the shooter.
Aredondo’s account of the police response is not supported by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the shooting and the subsequent police response.
The DPS said Aredondo had mistakenly treated the shooting as a barricaded suspect incident in which law enforcement negotiated with the shooter. Instead, he had to treat it as an active shooter situation, where the number one priority for officers is to stop firing by killing or holding the shooter.
An hour and 17 minutes after Ramos started firing, cops finally broke through the classroom door and killed the suspects.
“In favor of retrospectively, where I am sitting now, of course, this was not the right decision. That was the wrong decision, period, “MRF Colonel Stephen McCro said at a May 27 press briefing.
Aredondo tried to talk to the shooter through the wall, but there was no answer, he told the newspaper.
The school district police chief also tried to justify his decision not to carry his police radios to school, believing he needed both hands to destroy the shooter instead of holding devices that could reveal the position. his if the archer hears them. Aredondo also did not have a bulletproof vest, he told the newspaper.
“Our goal was to save as many lives as possible, and retrieving students from the classrooms of all those involved saved over 500 of our students and teachers from Uvalde before gaining access to the shooter and eliminating the threat,” Aredondo said. .
But Aredondo’s decision not to take his radios with him meant he did not know that students were calling 911 from the two classrooms to which the gunman was directed, begging police to stop him.
He also said he did not consider himself the commander of the incident and believed that another officer had taken control of the organization of the various police agencies that responded.
A mourner carries flowers to a memorial at Rob Elementary School to honor the victims on June 9, 2022 at Uvalde.AP
“I have not issued any orders,” Aredondo said. “I called for help and asked for a retrieval tool to open the door.”
Aredondo says he never told anyone not to break into the building, while at the same time taking credit for telling staff to break windows outside so students in other classrooms could be evacuated.
Some U.S. border patrol agents who responded to the school said they disregarded the order not to enter the classroom, the New York Times reported. Aredondo did not object when the team entered the room.
Aredondo did not speak soon so as not to cause more grief to the families of the victims, he said. He hired a lawyer, George E. Hyde.
The Texas Public Safety Department did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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