The Division of Public Security stopped holding public briefings inside every week of the Might 24 capturing after a number of of the main points shared by officers, together with Mr. McCraw and Gov. Greg Abbott, turned out to be incorrect. The data that had be corrected included the size of time it took for officers to fireplace the primary photographs on the gunman (not instantly, however one hour and 17 minutes after he started capturing inside the varsity) and the way he had gained entry to the constructing (not by means of a door that had been propped open, however by means of one which was unlocked.)
The State Police stopped offering updates and commenced referring media inquiries to the native district lawyer, Christina Mitchell Busbee, who has declined all requests for interviews and has not held any information conferences.
The shifting narrative surrounding the bloodbath, which left 19 kids and two lecturers useless, rapidly undermined belief within the official accounts of the capturing and created pressure between state officers and people in Uvalde, most of whom rallied round their metropolis police division and Mr. Arredondo, who just lately took a seat on the Metropolis Council.
A lawyer for Mr. Arredondo did reply to a request for remark.
These tensions solely grew when Mr. McCraw held a information convention three days after the capturing and mentioned that Mr. Arredondo had been in control of the police response and had made the “unsuitable resolution” in not making an attempt to right away confront the gunman.
Quickly after that information convention, on Might 27, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, requested that the federal Division of Justice conduct its personal investigation, impartial of the one by the Texas Rangers, who report back to Mr. McCraw. The State Legislature can be conducting an inquiry, that means there at the moment are no less than three separate investigations into what occurred.
With out official briefings, particulars emerged by different means, together with by means of investigatory paperwork, surveillance video and transcripts of police physique digicam recordings reviewed by The Instances.
The Instances revealed that Mr. Arredondo had arrived on the faculty with out his police radio and centered on discovering keys to the lecture rooms, although was not obvious within the movies that anybody had checked the classroom door to see if it was locked. It additionally reported that police supervisors had been informed there have been folks alive however wounded within the school rooms, that the officer had been on the cellphone along with his spouse, a trainer, after she was shot however earlier than she died, and {that a} Uvalde police officer handed up a chance to take a shot on the gunman exterior the varsity, fearing he would possibly hit kids.
