A Texas state lawmaker said on Thursday that the police chief who was in charge of the scene during the shooting at Robb Elementary School last week in Uvalde, Texas, was never told about the multiple 911 calls that were coming from inside the building after the attacker had locked himself in a classroom full of children.
The news is the latest development in the widely criticized response by law enforcement officials at the school after an 18-year-old Latino shooter murdered 19 children.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) said during a press conference that the information, which was given to the Uvalde Police Department, was never communicated to Uvalde CISD police chief Pete Arredondo.
“What we do know is that the 911 calls were not being communicated to the so-called incident commander, Officer Arredondo,” Gutierrez said. “They were being communicated to a Uvalde police officer.”
“I think that Mr. Arredondo, whom I do not know, has a lot of responsibility to bear here, as does every law enforcement unit that was at that property, at that school,” Gutierrez continued. “There is blame enough to go around. There was human error and there was system error.”
Officials from the Uvalde Consolidated School District called the police on journalists this week after reporters at its headquarters demanded answers about the massacre that unfolded at Robb Elementary School last week.
A short video posted to Twitter by CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz shows four law enforcement officers, who appear to be employed by the school district and unaffiliated with Uvalde police, standing outside the district’s offices.
One officer said, “Just so that you know, Uvalde PD is en route and once they get here, they will start issuing criminal trespasses for the property.”
A second officer said that the school district wanted them to give the journalists an initial warning before criminal trespassing charges were doled out.
Prokupecz confronted Uvalde Independent School District Police Chief Pedro Arredondo earlier on Wednesday to get answers about decisions that he allegedly made in responding to the school shooting.
“We’re not going to release anything; we have people in our community being buried,” Arredondo said. “We’re going to be respectful … we’re going to be respectful to the families.”
“I just want your reaction to Director McCraw saying that you were responsible for the decision to go into that room, how do you explain yourself to the parents?” Prokupecz asked. “I understand that, but you have an opportunity to explain yourself to the parents.”
“We’re going to do that eventually, obviously,” Arredondo responded.
“When?” Prokupecz asked.
“Whenever this is done, we’ll let the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously,” said Arredondo. “Just so everybody knows, we have been in contact with DPS every day, just so you all know, every day.”
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
This story has been updated to include additional information.