Despite questions over who was in command, the first publicly released body-worn camera videos from officers at the Robb Elementary School massacre show Pedro Arredondo, the school district's police chief, at the centre of the police response: giving orders, conveying and receiving information, and officers deferring to his position when confused over their roles or response to the shooting.
, the school district's police chief, at the centre of the police response: giving orders, conveying and receiving information, and officers deferring to his position when confused over their roles or response to the shooting.
Arredondo has not spoken substantively to the public about his actions that day and he has declined CNN requests for comment. His lawyer, who has not responded to CNN requests for comment, told theArredondo told the House investigative committee that he did not "consider himself to have assumed incident command," according to the legislative report -- which quoted the chief as saying, "My approach and thought was responding as a police officer. And so I didn't title myself.
Arredondo remained in the hallway and provided updates to dispatchers, requested resources throughout the morning and early afternoon, directed the position of a sniper, gave an assignment to keep clearing rooms, made assignments when attempting to key into a neighbouring classroom and told a team of officers to "have at it" if they were ready to go.
Arredondo, who has nearly three decades of experience in law enforcement, has since been placed on unpaid leave, while the school board considers firing him. In addition, the city of Uvalde placed a police lieutenant, who was the city department's acting chief that day, on administrative leave while it determines whether he should have assumed command. It's not clear whether anyone else is on leave; city officials didn't respond to requests for comment.
Along the way, someone shouts at them from a building, Coronado shouts a warning to someone to be careful and pauses to share information with a dispatcher. While he's talking, they hear gunfire and begin running toward the building where the shooter is already inside a classroom. Coronado approaches the school on the same side as Arredondo and two other police officers.
Coronado -- the sergeant from a different agency who Arredondo said was "fully uniformed" in offering his testimony for leaving his radios behind -- retreats out the south door of the school and begins co-ordinating incoming resources. The information typically shared over radios isn't just useful to people speaking to each other. Any responding officer listening to their radio can use the information -- the facts, but also the cadence of their delivery, the tone of voice, the background noise -- to evaluate the situation and mentally prepare for what they're encountering. Dispatchers can also use that to co-ordinate resources from other agencies, even those outside law enforcement.
The city of Uvalde didn't release footage from two officers who were with Coronado, and it's not clear if they wore cameras at the time. From Coronado's video, it appears at least one of those officers remained inside with Arredondo. Minutes later, Coronado's body camera captures Arredondo standing in the hall talking to a group of at least four officers crouching for cover at a school entrance, one of them peering through the bullet-resistant glass of a ballistic shield. The chief is talking about a sniper and pointing in different directions.
At 12:21 p.m., moments after Arredondo asks for a breaching tool, a volley of four shots echoes through the hallway. The officers take cover. The chief tries to communicate with the shooter."How about this, guys, break this window and get these kids out," he says. Just before 12:30 p.m., now off the phone, the chief is heard apparently formulating a plan and assigning roles.Still, the wait continues."We're going to get a door jammer real quick," Arredondo tells them.
"Can you hear us sir. Please don't hurt anyone. These are innocent children. Please put your firearm down. We don't want anybody else hurt. Can you hear me, sir? Please put your firearm down," the chief says.At 12:42 p.m. Arredondo is back on the phone: "Just so you understand, I think there are some injuries in there. And what we did, we cleared off the rest of the building so we wouldn't have any more besides what's in there, obviously.
"The video also does give a lot more clarity as to how much chaos there was, and there was a lot. That type of chaos, that many people, from that many agencies, absolutely contributes to a lot of inaction," said Eells, of the National Tactical Officers Association.
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