XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.law-enforcement   
   From: primates@shaw.ca   
      
   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 since the massacre, published Thursday, that he didn't consider   
   himself the person in charge as it unfolded and assumed someone else had   
   taken control of the law enforcement response.   
      
   Pete Arredondo, 50, the police chief of the Uvalde school district, also   
   told The Texas Tribune 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 the chief said was reinforced with a steel jamb and   
   couldn't 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.   
      
   Arredondo told the Tribune that from the hallway of the school, he used   
   his cell phone to call for tactical gear, a sniper and keys to get inside   
   the classroom. He said he held back from the door for 40 minutes to avoid   
   provoking gunfire and tried dozens of keys brought to him but that, one-   
   by-one, they failed to work.   
      
   "Each time I tried a key I was just praying," he told the Tribune.   
      
   In the more than two weeks since the shooting, Arredondo's actions have   
   come under intensifying scrutiny from both state officials and experts   
   trained in mass shooting responses.   
      
   But Arredondo defended his actions and those of other law enforcement,   
   remarking to the Tribune that, "Not a single responding officer ever   
   hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the   
   children," Arredondo said. "We responded to the information that we had   
   and had to adjust to whatever we faced. 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."   
      
   Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said   
   the school police chief, who he described as the incident commander, made   
   the "wrong decision" to not order officers to breach the classroom more   
   quickly to confront the gunman.   
      
   But Arredondo, who told the Tribune he believed carrying radios would slow   
   him down as he entered the school and that he knew that radios didn't work   
   in some school buildings, said he never considered himself the scene's   
   incident commander and didn't give any instruction that police shouldn't   
   attempt to breach the building.   
      
   "I didn't issue any orders," Arredondo said. "I called for assistance and   
   asked for an extraction tool to open the door."   
      
   Arredondo hasn't responded to repeated interview requests and questions   
   from The Associated Press.   
      
   Arredondo's account and records obtained by the Times were published   
   Thursday as law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present   
   an accurate timeline and details. They've also made frequent corrections   
   to previous statements, and no information about the police response has   
   been formally released by investigators since the days that followed the   
   attack.   
      
   According to documents obtained by the Times, a man investigators believe   
   to be Arredondo could be heard on body camera footage talking about how   
   much time was passing.   
      
   "People are going to ask why we're taking so long," said the man,   
   according to a transcript of officers' body camera footage obtained by the   
   newspaper. "We're trying to preserve the rest of the life."   
      
   Sixty officers had assembled on the scene by the time four officers made   
   entry, according to the report. The two classrooms where the shooting took   
   place included 33 children and three teachers.   
      
   Not all the victims were found dead when officers finally went inside: one   
   teacher died in an ambulance and three children died at nearby hospitals,   
   according to the records obtained by the Times, which included a review of   
   law enforcement documents and video that have been gathered as part of the   
   investigation.   
      
   The family of Xavier Lopez, 10, said the boy had been shot in the back and   
   lost a lot of blood as he waited for medical attention.   
      
   "He could have been saved," Leonard Sandoval, the boy's grandfather, told   
   the newspaper. "The police did not go in for more than an hour. He bled   
   out."   
      
   The records obtained by the Times offered other new details, including   
   that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, had a "hellfire" trigger device meant to   
   enable a semiautomatic AR-15-style rifle to be fired more like an   
   automatic weapon, but didn't appear to have used it during the attack.   
   Ramos had spent more than $6,000 amassing an arsenal of weapons that   
   included two AR-15-style rifles, accessories and hundreds of rounds of   
   ammunition, according to the documents.   
      
   The Times reported that some of the officers who first arrived at the   
   school had long guns, and that Arredondo learned the gunman's identity   
   while inside the school and attempted to communicate with him through the   
   closed classroom doors.   
      
   Eva Mireles, one of the teachers who was killed, made a phone call to her   
   husband, a Uvalde school district police officer, during the attack. The   
   documents obtained by the Times show that Ruben Ruiz informed responders   
   on the scene that his wife was still alive in one of the classrooms.   
      
   "She says she is shot," Ruiz could be heard telling other officers as he   
   arrived inside the school at 11:48 a.m., according to the body camera   
   transcript obtained by the Times.   
      
   By 12:46 p.m., Arredondo seemed to give his approval for officers to enter   
   the room, the Times reported.   
      
   "If y'all are ready to do it, you do it," he said, according to the   
   transcript.   
      
   About a week after the shooting, department of public safety officials   
   said Arredondo was no longer cooperating with the agency and had not   
   responded to interview requests from the Texas Rangers, the agency's   
   investigative unit.   
      
   Arredondo's attorney, George E. Hyde, told the Tribune for Thursday's   
   story that Arredondo could not do an interview on the day the Rangers   
   asked because he was covering shifts for his officers. Hyde said Arredondo   
   is willing to cooperate with the Rangers investigation but would like to   
   see a transcript of his previous comments.   
      
   "That's a fair thing to ask for before he has to then discuss it again   
   because, as time goes by, all the information that he hears, it's hard to   
   keep straight," Hyde said.   
      
      
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