In the first detailed interview about his role in the school shooting response, Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo describes what transpired for the more than an hour spent in the hallway of Robb Elementary School. Arredondo described the wait for a key that would eventually open the steel door and allow officers to put an end to last month’s mass shooting.
In a report by the Texas Tribune, Arredondo sheds new light on the controversial police response to the shooting and disputes accounts that he was the incident commander that day. In the telephonic interview and through statements provided to the Tribune by his attorney, George E. Hyde, Arredondo says he took the role of a first responder as he entered the school immediately upon arrival and remained in the hallway attempting to gain access to the shooter locked behind a steel door.
Arredondo, who heads the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s six-officer police force, faced intense criticism for the response to the shooting and has been described as the Incident Commander by state authorities — therefore singularly responsible for the delay in reaching the shooter. As reported by Breitbart Texas, Arredondo and others received death threats in the aftermath.
Arredondo disputes assertions that officers’ actions were cowardly and incompetent, telling the Tribune, “Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children. We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced.” He added, “Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.”
Hyde, Arredondo’s attorney, also disputes assertions that officers’ actions were incompetent and cowardly, telling the Tribune the criticisms do not reflect the realities police face when under fire and trying to save lives. Hyde explained the dilemma faced by the small community of about 15,000. He told the Tribune its small band of school police does not have the staffing, equipment, training, or experience with mass violence compared to larger cities.
Hyde went on to say his client ran straight toward danger armed with a 9mm pistol and his 29 years of experience as a peace officer. He did not have body armor.
According to Arredondo, his most consequential decision was his immediate response to the school shooting. At around 11:35 a.m., he left his police radios outside the school. Arredondo told the Tribune his choice was logical. Every second mattered and he wanted both hands free for his weapon.
Arredondo did not speak out sooner because he did not want to compound the community’s grief or place blame on others, he told the Tribune.
He said he believed he was the first officer to arrive and that carrying the radios would slow him down. He also doubted their effectiveness inside the school, based on his experience in the district. This decision would impact his ability to communicate with the other officers and forced him to use a cell phone.
Arredondo began working with Uvalde Police officers to locate the gunman. According to his statements to the Tribune, Arredondo says a teacher pointed them to the wing the gunman had entered where they soon heard a “great deal of rounds” being fired. He believed that was the time the gunman entered the open classroom.
Attempting to enter behind the gunman, Arredondo tried to open both classroom doors, but were locked. Arredondo told the Tribune some of the bullets traveled through the locked classroom door, injuring officers in the hallway. The officers, suffering grazing bullet wounds, returned to contain the gunman.
Arredondo says the security features designed to protect students ultimately prevented him from reaching the shooter. Arredondo told the Tribune the classroom door was reinforced with a steel jamb, preventing officers from kicking it in to gain access. The classroom lights were also shut off.
The fact that Arredondo did not have his police radios during the time of the shooting also precluded him from hearing information from the 911 call center. He was not aware of any of the 911 calls placed by children. He says officers passed along information by whispering for fear of drawing more gunfire.
Arredondo told the Tribune he used his cell phone to call police dispatch to request SWAT, snipers, and tools to open the classroom door. According to his statement, he believed another officer or official had taken control of the larger response since he had assumed the role of a front-line responder.
Arredondo’s assertion of this to the Tribune is in keeping with the National Incident Management System (NIMS). According to NIMS, developed as the guiding doctrine for responding to emergencies by FEMA in 2005, the overall command of an incident is subject to change for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is the arrival of a more qualified incident commander from the agency with a higher level of jurisdictional responsibility.
Statements made by the Texas DPS in the days following the shooting indicated they saw Arredondo as the incident commander and criticized his decision to not enter the classroom sooner. During a press conference detailing the timeline of events, the director of the Texas Highway Patrol also indicated a teacher left a door propped open, allowing the gunman to enter the building. That information was later disputed by an attorney retained by the teacher, prompting the DPS to retract that information and issue a correction through a department spokesperson.
According to Arredondo, officers in the hallway had few options. Arredondo tried to talk to the gunman through the walls to establish a line of communication. Still unable to reach the shooter, Arredondo began the evacuation process, telling officers to start breaking exterior classroom windows as some of the gunfire was piercing through the walls.
“The ammunition was penetrating the walls at that point,” Arredondo told the Tribune. “We’ve got him cornered, we’re unable to get to him. You realize you need to evacuate those classrooms while we figured out a way to get in.”
Before the tools needed to breach the doorway arrived, Arredondo received keys as he had previously requested, hoping to enter the classroom. Police on his force did not carry master keys to the schools within their district. Arredondo’s attorney told the Tribune the school did not have a modern system of locks and access control. “You’re talking about a key ring that’s got to weigh 10 pounds,” Hyde said.
A janitor initially provided six keys to Arredondo. None worked. Later, Arredondo received an additional 20 and 30 key sets. According to Arredondo, he tried each and none opened the door.
“I was praying one of them was going to open up the door each time I tried a key,” Arredondo said in an interview. Eventually, Arredondo received a cell phone call from officers on the opposite side of the hallway letting him know a key to the door was found.
It was at this time that the hastily formed team of Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement approached the doorway. Once the entry team had killed the shooter, the grim task of providing medical care for the wounded began with Arredondo helping to pass the injured children through the hallway and on to emergency medical care personnel.
Arredondo told the Tribune his department is also suffering in the aftermath of the shooting. Eva Mireles, one of the two teachers killed that day, was married to one of his department’s officers, Ruben Ruiz. To help his officers grieve, he has taken extra shifts.
Arredondo summed up the situation by saying those who are threatening the officers on that day are reacting on assumptions and not the whole story. “Those are people who just don’t know the whole story that are making their assumptions on what they’re hearing or reading. That’s been difficult,” he told the Tribune.
Arredondo believes he and the officers that responded to the shooting ultimately were able to save lives and is proud of their efforts that day.
“No one in my profession wants to ever be in anything like this, but being raised here in Uvalde, I was proud to be here when this happened. I feel like I came back home for a reason, and this might possibly be one of the main reasons why I came back home. We’re going to keep on protecting our community at whatever cost,” he concluded.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX
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