The police chief in charge of the law enforcement response in last week’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 21 people died, including 19 children, refused to answer questions about the incident during an interview with CNN.
Pedro Arredondo, who oversees four school police officers, has faced criticism for his decision to have 19 officers outside a Robb Elementary School classroom stand down for an hour while a gunman was inside shooting children.
Eventually, a Border Patrol tactical team entered the room and killed the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Arredondo has not responded to a request for a follow-up interview with the Texas Rangers, who are investigating the shooting, and on Wednesday declined to release any information to CNN while funerals are ongoing.
“We’re going to be respectful to the family,” he said. “We’re going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that, obviously.”
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw last week said Arredondo made the “wrong decision” to not engage with the shooter, though he didn’t identify Arredondo by name.
Law enforcement policy created after the 1999 Columbine school shooting calls for police to stop a gunman as fast as possible.
The Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde Independent School District Police have stopped cooperating with the DPS investigation into the response to the shooting following McCraw’s statement.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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