UVALDE, Texas (WSVN) — The former Ulvade police schools chief who was indicted by a grand jury over his role in the 2022 Robb Elementary mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers, is finally breaking his silence.
Nearly 400 law enforcement agents responded to the Robb Elementary massacre on May 24, 2022. Among the responding officers were former Texas school police Chief Pete Arredondo, who has now been charged for his actions that day facing multiple felony counts of child endangerment/abandonment.
“I can tell you that probably 100% of those people hadn’t been in a situation like that before,” said Arredondo.
Released body cam clips shows what happened in the school’s hallway that day. Arredondo said he knew there were likely victims in the room with the gunman, yet no one entered the the room where the gunman was for more than 70 minute and he continued to shoot at victims.
“If you look at the bodycam footage, there was no hesitation. And myself and the first handful of officers that went in there and went straight to the hot zone as you may call it and took fire. At that point, we worked with what we had,” said Arredondo.
He now claims there were state police officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety who arrived after him who should have set up an incident command post and taken control of the scene.
“Nobody enter until the chief of police give you permission there,” said officer Constable Zamora
“Get ready for friendlies,” said Zamora.
“Tell them to [expletives] wait,” said Arredondo.
“Nobody enter!” said Zamora.
When Arredondo and his lawyer were asked if they will request a change of venue in his upcoming trial they said they are inclined to keep it in Uvalde. Sources says they want the public to hear what Arredondo has to say.
“I know we did the best we could with what we had and, and by running into that building and not leaving there, and doing what we could or doing what I could and what the other officers could. It was the best we could with the situation we had and information we had,” said Arredondo
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.