AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas school police chief, criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest class shootings in U.S. history, said in his first extensive commentary, published Thursday, that he was not held responsible while the massacre took place. and assumed someone else had taken control of the police response.
Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune that he intentionally left police and campus radios behind before entering Robb Elementary School. An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers behind a locked classroom door that, according to the boss, was reinforced with a steel jamb and could not be hit.
Bad radio communications are among the concerns raised about how police handled the May 24 shooting and why they did not confront the gunman for more than an hour, even when the distressed parents of outside the school urged officers to enter.
Separately, The New York Times reported Thursday that documents show police waiting for protective equipment while delaying entry to campus, although they noted that some victims needed medical treatment.
Arredondo told the Tribune that from the school hallway he used his cell phone to order tactical equipment, a sniper and keys to enter the classroom. He said he stayed out of the door for 40 minutes to avoid being shot and tried to get dozens of keys brought to him, but one by one they didn’t work.
“Every time I tried a key I was just praying,” he told the Tribune.
In the more than two weeks since the shooting, Arredondo’s actions have been heavily scrutinized by both state officials and experts in response to mass shootings. Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Homeland Security, said the school’s police chief, whom he described as the commander of the incident, made the “wrong decision” not to order officers. that they enter the classroom more quickly to face the gunman.
But Arredondo, who told the Tribune that he believed that carrying radios would stop him when he entered school and that he knew radios did not work in some school buildings, said he was never considered the commander of the incident and did not give no instruction. that the police should not try to break into the building.
“I did not give any orders,” Arredondo said. “I asked for help and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.”
Arredondo has not responded to repeated requests for interviews and questions from The Associated Press.
Arredondo’s account and records obtained by the Times were released on Thursday as law enforcement and state officials struggled to present a precise timetable and details. They have also made frequent corrections to previous statements, and investigators have not formally released any information about the police response since the days following the attack.
According to documents obtained by the Times, a man who investigators believe to be Arredondo could be heard in the images of the body camera talking about how much time passed.
“People will wonder why it took us so long,” the man said, according to a transcript of the camera footage of officers obtained by the newspaper. “We’re trying to preserve the rest of our lives.”
Sixty officers had gathered at the scene when four officers entered, according to the report. There were 33 children and three teachers in the two classrooms where the shooting took place.
Not all of the victims were found dead when officers finally got inside: a teacher died in an ambulance and three children died at nearby hospitals, according to Times records, which included a review of U.S. documents. law enforcement and video that have been collected. as part of the investigation.
The family of Xavier López, 10, said the boy had been shot in the back and had lost a lot of blood while waiting for medical attention.
“He could have been saved,” Leonard Sandoval, the boy’s grandfather, told the newspaper. “Police did not enter for more than an hour. He bled.”
Records obtained by the Times provided other new details, including that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, had a “hellfire” firing device designed to allow him to fire an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle more like an automatic weapon, but he did not appear. having used it during the attack. Ramos had spent more than $ 6,000 amassing an arsenal of weapons that included two AR-15-style rifles, accessories and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to documents.
The Times reported that some of the officers who first arrived at the school had long guns and that Arredondo knew the identity of the gunman while he was at school and tried to communicate with him through the closed doors of the classroom.
Eva Mireles, one of the teachers who was killed, made a phone call to her husband, a police officer from the school district of Uvalde, during the attack. The documents obtained by the Times show that Rubén Ruiz informed the respondents of the scene that his wife was still alive in one of the classrooms.
“She says she was shot,” Ruiz heard other officers say when he arrived at school at 11:48 a.m., according to the transcript of the body camera obtained by the Times.
At 12:46 p.m., Arredondo appeared to give his approval for officers to enter the room, the Times reported.
“If you’re ready to do it, do it,” he said, according to the transcript.
About a week after the shooting, public safety officials said Arredondo was no longer cooperating with the agency and had not responded to requests for an interview from the Texas Rangers, the investigation unit of the Texas Rangers. agency.
Arredondo’s attorney, George E. Hyde, told the Tribune for Thursday’s story that Arredondo was unable to conduct an interview the day the Rangers asked because he was covering his officers’ shifts. Hyde said Arredondo is willing to cooperate with the Rangers’ investigation, but would like to see a transcript of his previous comments.
“It’s fair to ask for it before we discuss it again because, as time goes on, all the information you hear is hard to keep clear,” Hyde said.
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