In his first extensive comments, Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, speaks about the response to the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
said in his first extensive comments, published Thursday, that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response.that he intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios before entering Robb Elementary School. An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers behind a locked classroom door that the chief said was reinforced with a steel jamb and could not be kicked in.
"I didn’t issue any orders," Arredondo said. "I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door."RELATED: Uvalde superintendent says district to hire more police "People are going to ask why we’re taking so long," said the man, according to a transcript of officers’ body camera footage obtained by the newspaper. "We’re trying to preserve the rest of the life."
Not all the victims were found dead when officers finally went inside: one teacher died in an ambulance and three children died at nearby hospitals, according to the records obtained by the Times, which included a review of law enforcement documents and video that have been gathered as part of the investigation.
Eva Mireles, one of the teachers who was killed, made a phone call to her husband, a Uvalde school district police officer, during the attack. The documents obtained by the Times show that Ruben Ruiz informed responders on the scene that his wife was still alive in one of the classrooms.
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