Uvalde School Police Chief Says He's Cooperating With Shooting Probe

UVALDE, TX — The Uvalde school district police chief who served as the on-site commander during last week's shooting at Robb Elementary School said Wednesday he is speaking daily with investigators, rebutting claims from state officials that he hadn't responded to follow-up interview requests in two days.

Pete Arredondo told CNN in a brief interview he has been speaking with Texas Department of Public Safety officials every day on the phone, his first public comments in a week.

Arredondo declined to answer any other questions regarding the shooting or comment on remarks from Steven McCraw, director of the Department of Safety, that Arredondo made the wrong decision to wait more than an hour before a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol tactical team confronted shooter Salvador Ramos, killing him. He said information would be given out at unspecified time after families were able to grieve.

"We have people in our community being buried," Arredondo said.

The first two funerals for victims of the shooting took place Tuesday, with more to be held in the coming days.

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Police are facing criticism, and some members of the Uvalde community are struggling to come to terms with law enforcement's response to the shooting. The U.S. Department of Justice also opened a probe into the time lapse between the start of the shooting and the tactical team's entry.

The May 24 shooting, the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, killed 19 students and two teachers. Ramos entered the school through an unlocked back door and made his way into a classroom, where most of the shooting occurred, and locked himself inside, according to official accounts.

Police were at the school within four minutes of Ramos entering the building, but officers didn't enter the classroom, even as parents and onlookers urgently told them to confront the shooter. A tactical team entered the classroom using a janitor's key and killed Ramos in an exchange of gunfire at 12:50 p.m., well after the gunman entered the school at 11:40 a.m.

State officials said 19 officers were at the school during this period, during which dispatchers were receiving 911 calls from inside the classroom.

On Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement calling for state legislators to put together special legislative committees to examine and develop recommendations on "school safety, mental health, social media, police training, firearm safety and more."

It is important for Texas to reassess school safety and mass violence, Abbott said.

Abbott also sent a letter to the head of the Texas School Safety Center asking the Texas State-based research center to ensure that school safety and security committees at each Texas public school district meet before Sept. 1 to review their emergency operations plan and address any safety concerns, including a review of each district's active threat plan.

Districts also will be required to ensure their school behavioral threat assessment teams as well as staff and substitutes are trained in district and campus safety procedures and review their access control procedures, including single access points.

Students and staff will not be returning to Robb Elementary School, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District announced Wednesday in a statement thanking the community for the outpouring of support. The district is looking into serving those students on other campuses.

The school district did not comment on the shooting investigation and said it would wait until investigators have finished before making a statement.