Uvalde police chief Arredondo waits to confront the shooter over fears cops could be killed [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Uvalde police knew victims were still alive while they waited to breach the classrooms, according to The New York Times.
• In a recording, police chief Pete Arredondo is believed to say, “People are going to ask why we’re taking so long.”
• Arredondo reportedly waited to go in over fears cops could be killed.

Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo knew there were people alive but injured inside classrooms with the shooter but waited to go in over fears cops could be killed, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Reportedly, Arredondo was aware that people needed urgent medical attention but the police waited more than an hour from the start of the shooting to breach a classroom door and take out the gunman.

Three children died in the hospital and one wounded teacher died in an ambulance after the lengthy standoff at Robb Elementary School on May 24.

The 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers using an AR-15-style rifle.

Arredondo is being slammed for how he handled the response to the shooting. There are questions about whether lives could’ve been saved had the police breached the door sooner. The chief showed up without a police radio which meant he couldn’t receive 911 calls from students inside the classrooms

Ramos walked into the building at 11:33 a.m. but cops didn’t breach the door and fatally shoot him until 12:50 p.m. Reports say minutes after Ramos went into rooms 111 and 112 and opened fire, officers followed – but when two cops suffered bullet graze wounds from the shooter cops retreated and ducked for cover.

No one went back to the door for 40 minutes, the Times said.

“People are going to ask why we’re taking so long,” a man believed to be Arredondo is heard saying in body cam footage, according to a transcript obtained by the Times. “We’re trying to preserve the rest of the life.”

“We think there are some injuries in there,” the man believed to be Arredondo says at another point. “And so you know what we did, we cleared off the rest of the building so we wouldn’t have any more, besides what’s already in there, obviously.”

One officer can be heard saying, “If there’s kids in there, we need to go in there.”

“Whoever is in charge will determine that,” another responds.

There were more than 12 people out of 33 inside the classroom still alive during the standoff, the report said. By the end, there were allegedly 60 cops on the scene.

The tactical unit that finally took out Ramos believed it was going against orders to stand down, but the Times report revealed Arredondo had finally agreed to breach the doors after protective shields were brought to the school. It’s the latest detail to be revised or retracted as the official story and timeline have changed multiple times in the days since the response.

Source: New York Post