Texas school police chief hasn’t responded for 2 days to state investigators about Uvalde shooting

A local police chief in Uvalde, Texas, hasn’t responded for a follow-up interview in a state investigation into the law enforcement response to an elementary school massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead, an official said Tuesday.

Peter Arredondo, the police chief of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, participated in an initial interview but has not yet answered requests for follow-ups made two days ago, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

DPS spokesman Travis Considine said that “Uvalde and Uvalde CISD departments have been cooperating with investigators,” but added that Arredondo has not responded to requests for additional interviews.

Arredondo is said to be the incident commander who incorrectly believed the gunman to be a barricaded suspect and ordered officers to remain outside during the shooting.

After more than an hour, federal agents disobeying the chief’s orders entered the school and fatally shot the gunman.

On Tuesday, Arredondo was sworn in as a newly elected member of the Uvalde City Council, Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement.

Officials canceled a ceremony for the event “out of respect for the families who buried their children today, and who are planning to bury their children in the next few days,” McLaughlin said.

But he added that all members, including Arredondo, who was elected this month, were sworn in Wednesday per the city charter.

The acknowledgment last week that authorities did not immediately target the shooter was met with fury from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who said he was “livid” over initial reports of a swift police response.

Investigators need to “get to the very seconds of exactly what happened with 100 percent accuracy and explain it to the public and most importantly to the victims who have been devastated,” he said.