Uvalde school police chief says he didn't keep officers from breaching massacre scene and didn't consider himself the commander, report says
CNN
In his first extensive public comments about his actions during last month's Texas school massacre, the Uvalde school police chief has contradicted previous narratives about his role, telling the Texas Tribune that he didn't consider himself the incident commander and did not instruct officers to refrain from breaching the scene.
Chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, who has faced widespread criticism for his role, portrayed a locked, jamb-reinforced classroom door as one of the main obstacles delaying the breach -- and the interview published Thursday adds another complication in officials' often-shifting and sometimes opposing narratives of how law enforcement officers responded to the gunman at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School on May 24.
"I didn't issue any orders," he told the Tribune, though the outlet reports the chief did instruct officers to start breaking the outside windows of other classrooms and begin evacuating students. "I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door" of one of the classrooms where the shooting happened, he said.
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