Uvalde Schools Police Chief has come under fire and is facing a probe after allegations that he ordered his officers to stand down during the Tuesday massacre.
On Tuesday afternoon, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 children and 2 teachers.
The onslaught lasted for nearly one hour, whereas the police reportedly waited for tactical teams to arrive without attempting to engage the shooter for dozens of minutes.
Disturbing allegations of police pepper-spraying and detaining desperate parents who wanted to storm the school on their own have since also emerged.
Now, it has come to light that Uvalde Police Chief Peter Arredondo is being investigated over claims that he didn’t have his radio on him when he allegedly ordered the officers at the scene to stand down and wait for reinforcements.
The investigation will reportedly also focus on finding out why the police waited around for more than half an hour despite 911 calls from terrified students and staff who were trapped inside the school.
As some experts on the matter suggested, a lack of a police radio could be a reason why the police chief might have told his officers to stand down.
“That’s going to be key. If those 911 calls were being communicated to the officers or the incident commander,” a source said in an interview with the New York Post.
“We’re still trying to determine if he had a radio on him, if he was monitoring the communication channels. If they were being relayed, it also raises questions as to why it was not treated as an active shooter situation.
“The problem right now is there’s so much confusion.”
While Chief Arredondo allegedly refused to speak to the NYPost, he is cooperating with Texas Rangers who are carrying out interviews as part of the investigation by the state’s Department of Public Safety.
Though the police chief has been facing mounting pressure, one officer who responded to the shooting has since backed his boss and insisted he didn’t order the cops to stand down.
“It’s a lie that Arredondo told everyone to stand down. It’s a lie. And we’re all getting death threats. It’s a f*****g nightmare,” the unnamed officer said.
The investigation comes after Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, blasted the police chief as he suggested he made the wrong decision by waiting.
“With the benefit of hindsight, from where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period,” he said.
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