The embattled Uvalde, Texas, school district police chief confirmed Wednesday that he is speaking daily with state investigators after reports claimed that he wasn’t cooperating.
“Just so everybody knows, we’ve been in contact with DPS every day,” Arredondo told the news outlet. “I’ve been on the phone with them every day.”
A CNN reporter said that Arredondo has declined to answer more questions about the incident.
“We’re going to be respectful to the family,” he told CNN about not releasing more information about the shooting. “We’re going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously.”
A day before, DPS spokesman Travis Considine told news outlets that Arredondo hadn’t responded to requests for more interviews about the shooting at Robb Elementary School. Officials last week said that Arredondo was the commander who ordered police to remain outside during the shooting after believing that shooter Salvador Ramos was barricaded in the building.
“It was the wrong decision” to delay the response, admitted DPS Director Steven McCraw during a news conference late last week. Law enforcement experts said police should have entered the building much sooner after reports emerged that on-site first responders waited more than one hour.
Eventually, a U.S. Border Patrol agent entered the building and killed the suspect, DPS said.
Officials have now determined that the teacher, who has not been identified, propped the door open with a rock, but then removed the rock and closed the door when she realized there was a shooter on campus, Considine said. But, Considine said, the door that was designed to lock when shut did not lock.
“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock,” Considine told AP.
Investigators confirmed the detail through additional video footage reviewed since Friday’s news conference when authorities first said the door was left propped open.
Earlier this month, Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde City Council, and a special meeting was scheduled to swear him in and others. However, that didn’t occur, according to Mayor Don McLaughlin, who confirmed that Arredondo was sworn in this week.
McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that the City Council meeting “will not take place as scheduled” before saying that “our focus on Tuesday is on our families who lost loved ones.”
