Uvalde school police chief defends Texas shooting response

[sl8]

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-texas-education-shootings-33789221930cff7331f4279ec8625ba3

Uvalde school police chief defends Texas shooting response

June 10, 2022

Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, third from left, stands during a news conference outside of the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas school police chief criticized for his actions during one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history said in his first extensive comments, published Thursday, that he did not consider himself the person in charge as the massacre unfolded and assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response.

Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also told the Texas Tribune that he intentionally left behind both his police and campus radios before entering Robb Elementary School. An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers behind a locked classroom door that the chief said was reinforced with a steel jamb and could not be kicked in.

Poor radio communications is among the concerns raised about how police handled the May 24 shooting and why they didn’t confront the gunman for more than an hour, even as anguished parents outside the school urged officers to go in.

Separately, The New York Times reported Thursday that documents show police waited for protective equipment as they delayed entering the campus, even as they became aware that some victims needed medical treatment.

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[Tetrachloride]

1. Police were afraid of unarmed teacher, a gunman and their jobs

Now they are afraid of half of the country.

[Jim__]

2. "... he did not consider himself the person in charge ... and assumed someone else had taken control

This guy should never be in charge of anything again.

[fmdaddio]

3. So

This is what the Blue Lives Matter flags mean. Every time I see one I'm going to remind the owner of how these cops put themselves first.

[Paladin]

4. There is no defense. (nt)

[tanyev]

6. Yep. Only weak excuses.

[Jedi Guy]

5. Nice try, Pete. All the information thus far is that you claimed the mantle of incident command.

You don't get to unclaim it now that there's heat on you because you botched the response, and you deserve every degree of that heat.

While I find his attempt at blame-shifting disgusting, as a person with experience in the world of law enforcement I believe someone from another agency should have clued in that Arredondo was incompetent and simply taken incident command from him. The investigation needs to determine why that someone never stepped forward and did so, because things may have turned out differently if they had.