Uvalde school police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo told investigators that he didn’t try to stop a gunman who had already shot children and teachers because he didn’t want more people killed.
Arredondo’s stunning remarks came during an interview with investigators the day after the May 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary, CNN reports.
In a Video of the previously unreported interview, Arredondo spoke bluntly about his recollection of events, and his answers conflict with his limited public statements.
“Once I realized that was going on, my first thought is that we need to vacate. We have him contained – and I know this is horrible and I know it’s [what] our training tells us to do but – we have him contained, there’s probably going to be some deceased in there, but we don’t need any more from out here,”
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His decision to treat the gunman as a barricaded subject and not confront him effectively left all the students and teachers in Classrooms 111 and 112 for dead. It was one of many times he did not follow the training and protocol for an active shooter.
Arredondo, chief of the tiny police force for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, was one of the first officers to reach Robb Elementary, minutes after a gunman went through an unlocked door into the building last May 24.
But he decided not to take action for over an hour, even when he heard the gunman firing his weapon and reloading inside the classroom and after it was confirmed children were trapped – injured and alive as well as dead – with the shooter.
Watch Arredondo’s remarks below:
Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo said to investigators after the massacre: ‘There's probably going to be some deceased in there, but we don't need any more from out here.’
He was wrong children were alive but pulled late and later died from their injuries. pic.twitter.com/oRbRZTJNQK
— Joshua Rodriguez (@Joshuajered) January 11, 2023
