Uvalde school police chief says he didn't think he was in charge of the mass-shooting response and assumed someone else was

• Pete Arredondo has been widely slammed for law enforcement's slow response to the Robb Elementary School shooting.
• He told The Texas Tribune he didn't think he was directing the response that day, and assumed someone else was.
• He said he had been acting as a front-line responder instead.

Uvalde's school police chief told The Texas Tribune that he didn't think he was in charge of the mass-shooting response at Robb Elementary School last month and assumed someone else was.

A gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers on May 24 and was killed by US Border Patrol about an hour after he entered the school.

Arredondo told The Tribune that he did not think he was in charge of the multi-agency response that day, though Department of Public Safety officials had previously described him as the commanding officer at the scene.

He told The Tribune he took on the role of a first responder instead because he assumed someone else would be in control of the wider response. He did not say who he thought that would be.

I didn't issue any orders," Arredondo told The Tribune. "I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.

The New York Times also reported that there was general confusion and miscommunication among law-enforcement officials as they tried to take down the shooter that day.

Arredondo also told The Tribune that he entered the school shortly after the gunman without a radio or body armor because he did not want to waste time.

He said a teacher pointed him and other officers in the direction of a fourth-grade classroom, where the shooter was opening fire. Arredondo said when he approached the door, it was locked, and he tried using 26 keys to open it but none of them worked.

He told The Tribune he then remained in the hallway with other officers for up to an hour while he called for a SWAT team, snipers, and extrication tools for the door.

He said he waited to prepare to shoot the gunman if he tried to exit the classroom.  

Arredondo, who has been chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) department since 2020, is responsible for security at the district's eight schools, The Texas Tribune previously reported.

Arredondo also defended officers' response to the shooting, telling The Tribune: "Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children.

"We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced."