Fired Uvalde School Police Chief Gave Reason For Delayed Shooter Confrontation In Newly-Released Interview: REPORT

 Former Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo said he did not immediately confront the perpetrator of the May 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in the classroom as protection for people elsewhere in the school, according to CNN.

The shooter killed 19 students and two teachers, with Arredondo treating him as a barricaded subject in a classroom for over an hour against active shooter training and protocol, the outlet reported. Arredondo told investigators in a newly-revealed interview the next day that he had prioritized saving students in other classrooms. 

“Once I realized that was going on, my first thought is that we need to vacate,” Arredondo said, CNN reported. “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.”

The Uvalde school board voted unanimously to fire Arredondo in August.

KHOU 11 YouTube channel/Screenshot

Arredondo said in the interview that he moved officers into a “pyramid formation” on the other side of the classroom door to avoid potential from the shooter, but later told The Texas Tribune he “didn’t issue any orders…” according to CNN. He told officers in the school hallway during the incident that they were “going to clear out this building before we do any breach,” body camera footage reveals.

“Time’s on our side right now,” Arredondo added at the time, CNN reported. “I know we probably have kids in there, but we’ve got to save the lives of the other ones.”