State Sen. Makes Stunning Revelation: Officials Claim Uvalde Incident Commander Had No Radio Communications During Shooting
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez made the stunning revelation that Texas officials now claim Uvalde Independent School District (Uvalde ISD) Police Chief Pete Arredondo did not have radio communication while he was the incident commander during the massacre at Robb Elementary School.
Outrage has been snowballing over the police response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and two adults, as damaging revelations paint the picture of a response characterized by inaction and deception after the fact.
For example, officials have insisted that Arredondo believed there were no more children at risk when he decided to wait an hour without breaching the classroom, despite multiple 911 calls from children inside pleading for help.
On Friday morning’s edition of CNN’s At This Hour With Kate Bolduan, anchor Kate Bolduan interviewed Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, and elicited yet another jaw-dropping revelation.
Asked if the 911 calls were relayed to officers inside the school, Gutierrez explained that they should have been, but that Arredondo had no radio communications anyway:
SEN. GUTIERREZ: I went to the Commission on State Emergency Communications. What I was told specifically is that in this area of Uvalde, those calls are dispatched through Uvalde PD, not the ISD as we were told before. PD dispatchers would then send as many as 17 different, to 17 different first responders, up to and including that school district. They are in the system. That said, I have been told that this person did not have, this person being the incident commander, did not have radio communication. And I don’t know as to why. And so those are the things that we do know. We also know that if these other first responders are getting these dispatchers, then other cops on the scene are listening to what’s going on. Listening to the 911 calls coming in. And yet there’s this inactivity for over 45 minutes, almost 48 minutes in that hallway.
KATE BOLDUAN: Two quick questions. Two quick questions, Senator. So your understanding is that Pete Arredondo did not have a radio on him, did not have any communications.
SEN. GUTIERREZ: That is what has been communicated to me.
KATE BOLDUAN: Setting this aside, even if there is a massive communications breakdown, as you seem to be concerned that there may have been, what? Do you think that they even needed to have 911 communications to know that they needed to get into that classroom?
SEN. GUTIERREZ: No, ma’am. I’ve said from day one that the active shooter protocol should trump everything. I’m not a police expert. I’m just a state senator trying to figure out what’s what. Make some sense out of this. Try to make sure it never happens again. I don’t, I don’t think we, any of us need to be rational people or policemen to understand that active shooter protocol says you go in, you go in immediately.
Watch above via CNN.
