Uvalde police could have stopped Robb Elementary shooting within three minutes according to Texas public safety chief.
The Uvalde police official statement has changed so many times since they completely failed their community.
It has been found that the police had enough officers on scene to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building. They never bothered to check the classroom door to see if it was locked or not, the head of the Texas state police testified Tuesday, pronouncing the law enforcement response an “abject failure.”
“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw told a special Texas Senate committee about Uvalde Consolidated ISD Police Chief Pete Arrendondo.
“Mistakes were made and it should have never happened that way and we can’t allow that to ever happen…this set our profession back a decade,” he said.
“Surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open a door to two classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in the 77 minutes between the time a gunman entered the rooms and massacred 21 people and officers finally breached the door and killed him,” the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Testifying before a special Texas Senate committee hearing, McCraw told lawmakers that “There is compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre.”
“Three minutes after the suspect entered the west building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject,” he said. “The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111, and 112, was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.”
“The officers had weapons, while the children had none. The officers had body armor, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none,” McCraw said Tuesday. “One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That’s how long the children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued. And while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radio and rifles. And he waited for shields, and he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for a key that was never needed.”.
The new information infuriated Texas State Senator Paul Bettencourt, who unleashed his anger on Arredondo.
“There is no training that could have overcome this person’s inability to command,” said Bettencourt. “Person should have never even been in the job…and there’s so many opportunities that are lost, it’s almost like a psychosis set in.
And I challenge this individual, I challenge this chief to come testify in public as to what happened here. Don’t go hide in the house and talk privately. Come to the Senate where the public of Texas can ask these questions.”
McCraw testified that according to the video not one officer bothered to even touch the door before the keys arrived. That door was never locked. In fact, it couldn’t be locked from the inside where the shooter was with his victims.
The City of Uvalde continues to argue back against the facts that are coming out. So much so that they have hired a private lawfirm to argue that they have no obligation to release those records.
The letter makes clear, however, that the city and its police department want to be exempted from releasing a wide variety of records in part because it is being sued, in part because some of the records could include “highly embarrassing information,” in part because some of the information is “not of legitimate concern to the public,” in part because the information could reveal “methods, techniques, and strategies for preventing and predicting crime,” in part because some of the information may cause or may “regard … emotional/mental distress,” and in part because its response to the shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and the Uvalde County District Attorney.
They don’t want to be embarassed.
The completely bumbled the opportunity to rescue children and teachers and are arguing that they would be embarassed?
How incredibly sad and pathetic.
Uvalde Schools Police Chief Peter Arredondo donated a total of $17 to Act Blue and $5 of it was “earmarked for Beto.” The $10 donation was earmarked, “Need to Impeach.” And while the amount donated was not much, it certainly shows his political affiliation and ideology: That citizens should not be able to own the most popular self-defense rifle in the country.
Could that have been a reason why he told 19 police officers to stand down and not engage with the one gunman?
It wasn’t a matter of the police not being prepared. Not long before the shooting the Uvalde police went through training for this very situation.
The city of Uvalde are circling their wagons around their failure of a police department. But why?
Had the police followed their training, how many children could they have saved? Had they actually checked the door, how many children could they have saved?
They let those children die and arrested parents for trying to save them.
Pete Arredondo is on administrative leave as of June 22.
