Gutiérrez said he spoke with the 911 State Emergency Communications Agency, and was told that 911 calls were handled and relayed to city police at the scene. . What is unclear, however, is whether this information was passed on to the school district police chief who was the commander of the incident at the scene.
“I was told by a police officer in Uvalde and the state agency I spoke to didn’t tell me who he was,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez also said he wants to know more about what was going on at school that day.
“I want to know where the cops were in that room. I want to know how many of my cops were in there, how many state soldiers there were. I want to know how many state cops were out there. I want to know how many federal officers were in for 19 minutes. I mean, for 45 minutes, “Gutierrez told reporters.
“I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls,” he said.
CNN has contacted the State Emergency Communications Commission, Uvalde Police and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District to comment on Gutiérrez’s statements.
The state senator also said that Colonel Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Homeland Security told him that on Friday he would receive information about the identities of the 19 officers who were in the hallway outside the classroom where the shooter was. Gutierrez pledged to share this information with the media once received.
“I beg you not to allow these people to hide behind an investigation by the district attorney on procedural matters. Do not allow anyone, do not allow this governor to hide behind the local district attorney on these procedural misconduct. on these political failures, as he presumes that we are looking at a criminal investigation, “the state senator urged.
“There has been a lot of failure here,” he said.
School District Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo was identified last week by the DPS as the commander who decided not to break into the adjoining classrooms where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. Arredondo spoke exclusively with CNN on Wednesday and declined to answer substantive questions about the massacre.
Searches have been issued for the mobile phone of the teenager Salvador Ramos, the truck he was driving and his grandparents’ house, according to court records obtained by CNN.
An order, signed Wednesday by Uvalde County District Court Judge Camille DuBose, allows law enforcement to conduct a forensic download of Ramos’ iPhone 13 Pro Max, which was found next to his body after police shot dead.
During the bloodbath, a negotiator tried to call the shooter, but he did not respond, Ivalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told reporters on Wednesday.
“They tested every number they could find that was associated with it,” McLaughlin said.
Now, this grief-stricken city is also plagued by changing police narratives, unanswered questions and the horror of knowing that 21 victims were trapped with a gunman for more than an hour, despite repeated calls for help from 911 since of the classrooms.
A teacher’s last call to her husband
In the 77-minute bloodshed at Texas Elementary School, teacher Eva Mireles spent some of her last breaths on the phone with her husband, telling him she was dying, the county judge said. of Ivalde Bill Mitchell in The New York Times after being briefed by the sheriff’s deputies. .
But Mireles’ husband, school district police officer Ruben Ruiz, was unable to save his wife and 20 other victims of massacre at Robb Elementary School.
Ruiz was one of many law enforcement officers who responded to the school during that attack.
“She’s in the classroom and he’s out. It’s scary,” Mitchell told the Times on Wednesday.
In Texas, county judges are the top county officials and executives.
Mitchell said he did not know the exact words exchanged between the teacher and the school district police officer. But the basic message was devastating.
“He’s out listening to his wife, ‘I’m dying,'” Mitchell told the Times.
He said he did not know if Ruiz transmitted the details of his phone call with his wife to Arredondo, who was the commander of the incident during the massacre.
The director of the Texas Department of Homeland Security said the incident commander believed the scene was no longer an active shooter situation, but a barricaded person scenario. It is not clear why.
The established law enforcement policy, created in the wake of the 1999 Columbine school shooting, calls for police to arrest the gunman as soon as possible in an active shooter situation.
In exclusive statements to CNN on Wednesday, Arredondo said he would not give further information while the funerals are taking place.
“We will be respectful of the family,” said Arredondo, who was sworn in as the city’s new councilor on Tuesday.
“In the end we will,” the school district police chief said. “As long as this is done and families stop mourning, then we will obviously do it.”
“It was an honor” to spend the last moments with a heroic teacher
In this small town, everyone knows someone deeply impacted by the massacre.
After Border Patrol tactics finally entered the classrooms and killed the 18-year-old gunman, a Texas DPS officer saw the carnage and found a seriously injured friend.
It was Mireles, the teacher who told her husband that she was dying.
“It was an honor to spend the last moment with Eve when she left this Earth to go to a bigger place,” said Juan Maldonado, a CNN affiliate of KSAT.
Maldonado met Mireles and her husband years ago when their daughters joined the same football team, KSAT reported.
“She protected her students,” Maldonado said. “She’s a hero to everyone, and she’s a hero to the family and to Uvalde.”
Mireles’ funeral is scheduled for Friday.
The funeral of the other murdered teacher, Irma Garcia, and her husband, Joe Garcia, took place on Wednesday. Joe Garcia died of a heart attack two days after his wife was shot dead. The couple’s family attributed his death to a broken heart.
Where is the investigation now?
Local, state, and federal investigators will explore the still-evolving details of the massacre to try to understand what went so horribly wrong.
Right now, the Texas Rangers are investigating the mass tragedy. Once the agency completes its investigation, Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Busbee said she will review the report and determine how to proceed.
“The Rangers will complete their investigation. I will review it and then see if there are any criminal charges to be filed,” Busbee said.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice said it would review law enforcement’s response to the deadly attack.
The review aims to “provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events.” said a Justice Department spokesman.
Although the investigation has not been completed, some notions are very clear, said Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA).
He said the incident commander’s belief that the shooter was no longer active and the decision not to enter the classroom immediately were “100% flawed”.
“If you’re in a classroom with innocent victims and I know shots have been fired, I have to commit,” Eells said. “Even if you stop firing, I’ll go into the room so we can start administering life-saving help to any potential victims.”
CNN’s Rebekah Riess, Mark Morales, Aaron Cooper, Shimon Prokupecz, Aya Elamroussi, Virginia Langmaid, and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.