AUSTIN, Texas (AP) 鈥 The former police chief of the Uvalde school district said he thinks he's been 鈥渟capegoated鈥 as the one to blame for the botched law enforcement response to the Robb Elementary School shooting, when hundreds of officers waited more than an hour to confront the gunman even as children were lying dead and wounded inside adjoining classrooms.
Pete Arredondo and another former district police officer are the only two people over their actions that day, even though nearly 400 local, state and federal officers responded to the scene and waited as children called 911 and parents begged the officers to go in.
鈥淚've been scapegoated from the very beginning,鈥 Arredondo told CNN during an interview that aired Wednesday. The sit-down marked his first public statements in two years about the May 24, 2022, attack that killed 19 students and two teachers, making it one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Within days after shooting, Col. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, identified Arredondo as the 鈥渋ncident commander鈥 of a law enforcement response that included nearly 100 state troopers and officers from the Border Patrol. Even with the massive law enforcement presence, officers waited more than 70 minutes to breach the classroom door and kill the shooter.
Scathing and investigative reports about the police response catalogued 鈥渃ascading failures鈥 in training, communication, leadership and technology problems.
A grand jury indicted Arredondo and former Uvalde schools police Officer Adrian Gonzales last month on multiple charges of child endangerment and abandonment. They pleaded .
The indictment against Arredondo contends that he didn't follow his active shooter training and made critical decisions that slowed the police response while the gunman was "hunting鈥 victims.
Arredondo told CNN that the narrative that he is responsible for the police response that day and ignored his training is based on 鈥渓ies and deception.鈥
鈥淚f you look at the bodycam footage, there was no hesitation 鈥 there was no hesitation in myself and the first handful of officers that went in there and went straight into the hot zone, as you may call it, and took fire,鈥 Arredondo said, noting that footage also shows he wasn't wearing a protective vest as officers inside the school pondered what to do.
Despite being cast as the incident commander, Arredondo said state police should have set up a command post outside and taken control.
鈥淭he guidebook tells you the incident commander does not stand in the hallway and get shot at,鈥 Arredondo. 鈥淭he incident commander is someone who is not in the hot zone.鈥
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees the state police and other statewide law enforcement agencies, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell declined to discuss Arredondo's interview.
Javier Cazares, whose daughter Jacklyn Cazares was one of the students killed, criticized Arredondo's comments.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand his feeling that there was no wrongdoing. He heard the shots. There鈥檚 no excuse for not going in,鈥 Cazares told The Associated Press on Thursday. 鈥淭here were children. Shots were fired. Kids were calling, and he didn鈥檛 do anything.鈥
Arredondo refused to watch video clips of the police response.
鈥淚've kept myself from that. It鈥檚 difficult for me to see that. These are my children, too,鈥 he told CNN. He also said it wasn't until several days after the attack that he heard there were children who were still alive in the classroom and calling 911 for help while officers waited outside.
When asked if he thought he made mistakes that day, Arredondo said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a hindsight statement. You can think all day and second guess yourself. ... I know we did the best we could with what he had."
___
Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
