Peter Arredondo, who as the school district police chief served as the on-site commander during last week’s deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is denying reports that he’s not cooperating with state law enforcement ― but he’s not saying much else.
Arredondo’s response to the shooting has been heavily criticized because he reportedly stopped at least 19 officers inside the school from breaking into classrooms, which allowed the gunman to continue to fire for at least an hour. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed by the 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
Since then, Arredondo, now on the City Council, hasn’t made very many public statements about his actions and reportedly hasn’t responded to interview requests by the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to The Associated Press.
However, Arredondo did give some brief, evasive comments to CNN on Tuesday, but only after being cornered by reporter Shimon Prokupecz.
Arredondo said he wasn’t going to release any new information because “we have people in our community being buried,” adding, “we’re going to be respectful to the families.”
Prokupecz pointed out that this was an opportunity for Arredondo to explain his actions to the families, and the chief said they planned to do that “eventually.”
“When?” Prokupecz asked.
“Whenever this is done, the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that, obviously,” Arredondo said. “Just so everybody knows, we have been in contact with DPS every day, just so you all know, every day.”
You can see the exchange below.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Tuesday that Arredondo had refused for two days to respond to requests for follow-up interviews in its investigation of the law enforcement response at the school on May 24.
Also Tuesday, Arredondo was officially sworn in as a City Council member.
Although Uvalde’s mayor had initially postponed the swearing-in ceremony out of respect for the victims’ families, it was held anyway, but without the public ceremony.