<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654850449781,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07c3-d172-a563-4febcc790000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654850449781,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07c3-d172-a563-4febcc790000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54850436", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1023159"} }); ","_id":"00000181-4cc5-d405-a3e7-dde7e7cf0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video Embed
The Uvalde school district’s police chief was aware students and a teacher were still alive inside the classroom where the Robb Elementary School gunman holed up for over an hour before law enforcement entered and killed him, according to a report.
Chief Pete Arredondo appeared to be uneasy with the amount of time it was taking to procure shields for officers and find keys to the classroom where the gunman, Salvador Ramos, had shot and killed several students and teachers, according to the New York Times. Arredondo, hampered by communication problems, waited 40 minutes after officers first approached the classroom door, and were shot at, before authorizing officers to breach the door, according to the report. Arredondo had been made aware at the scene that a teacher, the wife of one of his officers, was shot and still alive inside the classroom and seemed to know others were injured.
“People are going to ask why we’re taking so long,” a person investigators believe is Arredondo said at the scene, according to a transcript of body camera footage. “We’re trying to preserve the rest of the life,” he continued.
“We think there are some injuries in there,” the man thought to be Arredondo said several minutes before the breach, according to the report. “And so, you know what we did, we cleared off the rest of the building so we wouldn’t have any more, besides what’s already in there, obviously.”
HOUSE PASSES RED FLAG LAW LEGISLATION, BUT IT FACES TOUGH ROAD IN SENATE
According to the report, Arredondo did not begin to discuss entering the classroom until 12:21 p.m., when several shots rang out 48 minutes after the gunman initially started his rampage at 11:33 a.m.
“We’re ready to breach, but that door is locked,” he said, according to the report, at around 12:30 p.m.
Around that time, officers at the scene seemed to grow impatient with the delay.
“If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there,” one officer said, according to the report.
“Whoever is in charge will determine that,” another responded.
At 12:46 p.m., Arredondo reportedly said, “If y’all are ready to do it, you do it.”
Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents and a sheriff’s deputy stormed the classroom and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m., unaware Arredondo had given the go-ahead due to communication problems, according to the report. The police chief was not carrying a police radio, and the local police radios did not function properly in and around the school.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
More than a dozen children were alive for over an hour before the breach, according to the report. Inside the room and the adjoining classroom, authorities found an “unmoving mass” of bodies. Eva Mireles, the wife of the Uvalde school district officer, was found alive but died before reaching the hospital. Three other children died at hospitals, according to the report, and investigators are trying to determine if any of those who died could have been saved by a quicker breach of the room.
The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary School is under investigation by the Texas state police and the U.S. Justice Department.
