According to reports, the chief of police at the Uvalde school issued a warning to other policemen who were present at the scene, saying, “People are going to wonder why we’re taking so long.”
The police in Uvalde, Texas, broke into the classroom where the gunman had killed 19 students and two teachers a month ago, even though they knew that some of the victims were still alive and required immediate medical assistance, according to an analysis of the investigative data conducted by The New York Times.
The new information offers a more precise timeline of the police response to the tragedy, which has been beset by contradictions and assertions from misleading officials.
Pete Arredondo, the head of school police at Uvalde, was the one who decided to evacuate the rest of the school rather than immediately confront the gunman.
According to a transcript of footage from a body camera that was viewed by the New York Times, Officer Arredondo communicated to other officers present at the scene that “people are going to wonder why we’re taking so long.” Our first concern right now is to do everything we can to save what is left of his life.
When he suggested that Arredondo should have addressed the gunman, the Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, made what can only be described as the “wrong decision.”
According to the New York Times, Classrooms 111 and 112 held a total of 33 kids and three teachers, more than a dozen of whom were still alive at the time.
