Texas state police: Uvalde school police chief not responding to investigators

A memorial outside of Robb Elementary School.

(Image credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

published 1 June 2022

Pete Arredondo, the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's police force, is not responding to investigators seeking more information about the response to last week's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, two spokespeople for the Texas Department of Public Safety told the Texas Tribune.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is reviewing why police officers didn't immediately confront the gunman at Robb Elementary School; the suspect ultimately killed 19 students and two teachers and wounded at least 17 others. DPS spokesman Travis Considine told the Texas Tribune that while Arredondo has not yet responded to an interview request sent a few days ago, the school district's police department and the Uvalde Police Department have both been cooperating with the investigation.

DPS officials on Tuesday also corrected a statement Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw made during a Friday news conference. McCraw said a teacher at Robb Elementary School had left a door propped open a few minutes before the gunman arrived on campus, and that's how he entered the building. It turns out the teacher actually did close the door before the suspect showed up at the school, but it did not lock automatically like it was supposed to, Considine said. DPS is now investigating the matter.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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