“The police did not go in for more than an hour. “He could have been saved,” Leonard Sandoval, the boy’s grandfather, told the newspaper. The family of Xavier Lopez, 10, said the boy had been shot in the back and lost a lot of blood as he waited for medical attention. 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. The two classrooms where the shooting took place included 33 children and three teachers. Sixty officers had assembled on the scene by the time four officers made entry, according to the report. “We’re trying to preserve the rest of the life.” “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. They have also made frequent corrections to previous statements, and no information about the police response has been formally released by investigators since the days that followed the attack.Īccording to documents obtained by the Times, a man who investigators believe to be Arredondo could be heard on body camera footage talking about how much time was passing. “I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.”Īrredondo has not responded to repeated interview requests and questions from The Associated Press.Īrredondo’s account and records obtained by the Times were published Thursday as law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details. “I didn’t issue any orders,” Arredondo said. Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said the school police chief, who he described as the incident commander, made the “wrong decision” to not order officers to breach the classroom more quickly to confront the gunman.īut Arredondo, who told the Tribune he believed that carrying radios would slow him down as he entered the school and that he knew that radios did not work in some school buildings, said he never considered himself the scene’s incident commander and did not give any instruction that police should not attempt to breach the building. In the more than two weeks since the shooting, Arredondo’s actions have come under intensifying scrutiny from both state officials and experts trained in mass shooting responses. “Each time I tried a key I was just praying,” he told the Tribune. He said he held back from the door for 40 minutes to avoid provoking gunfire and tried dozens of keys brought to him, but that, one-by-one, they failed to work.
Separately, The New York Times reported Thursday that documents show police waited for protective equipment as they delayed entering the campus, even as they became aware that some victims needed medical treatment.Īrredondo told the Tribune that from the hallway of the school he used his cell phone to call for tactical gear, a sniper and keys to get inside the classroom.
Poor radio communications is among the concerns raised about how police handled the May 24 shooting and why they didn’t confront the gunman for more than an hour, even as anguished parents outside the school urged officers to go in. 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. Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune that he intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios before entering Robb Elementary School. history 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. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close MenuĪUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S.