The incident commander in charge of the police response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is declining to answer questions about a crucial decision made that day.
CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz confronted Pete Arredondo, the chief of police of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, on Wednesday about law enforcement’s response to the shooting.
“I want to talk to you about the decision…” Prokupecz started.
However, Arredondo interjected, “Just so you all know, we’re not going to release anything. We have people in our community being buried. So we’re going to be respectful.”
Prokupecz asked for Arredondo’s reaction to the director of the Texas Department of Safety identifying him as the incident commander who made the decision not to breach the classroom door.
He also asked, “How do you explain yourself?
“We’re going to be respectful to the families, Arredondo responded.
The CNN reporter said, “You have an opportunity to explain yourself to the parents.”
Arredondo continued, “And just so you know, we’re going to do that.”
“When?” Prokupecz asked.
The police chief said, “Whenever this is done, the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously. Just so everybody knows, we have been in contact with DPS every day, just so you all know, every day.”
Watch the video below:
CNN’s @ShimonPro confronts Uvalde schools police chief Peter Arredondo for the force's decision to not cooperate with investigations into the police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting. pic.twitter.com/4DPocsn8OB
— The Recount (@therecount) June 1, 2022
Prokupecz noted that the Texas Department of Public Safety said on Tuesday that the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde school district police are not cooperating with their investigation.
“I’ve been on the phone with them every day,” Arredondo asserted.
Finally, he turned to walk away as he said, “Y’all have a good day.”
The exchange comes a week after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde killed 19 children and two adults. In the days after the shooting, further details emerged that shed light on mistakes in the police response.
Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters on Friday that a school resource officer arrived on the scene, before the gunman entered the school, but drove by him as he was crouched behind a car.
McCraw shared that the gunman entered the school at 11:33 a.m.
By 12:03 p.m., there were reportedly 19 officers outside of the classroom the gunman entered. However, law enforcement officials waited until 12:50 p.m. to breach the classroom door — which is when the gunman was shot.
During the time that the officers waited to breach the classroom, children were reportedly calling 911 to ask for help and shared that there were “eight to nine students alive.”
McCraw told reporters that the incident commander believed “this was a barricaded subject situation” and that there were no “more children at risk.” However, he said, “From the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There’s no excuse for that.”