No Radio, Old Tactics: How the Police Response
in Uvalde Broke Down
The commander at the scene arrived without a police radio, and decided in the first minutes on an approach that would delay a confrontation.
Two minutes after a gunman burst through an unlocked door at Robb Elementary School and began shooting inside a pair of connected classrooms, Pete Arredondo arrived outside, one of the first police officers to reach the scene.
The gunman could still be heard firing repeatedly, and Chief Arredondo, as leader of the small school district police force in Uvalde, took charge.
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Chief Arredondo did not have a police radio with him...As two supervisors from the local police department were grazed by bullets fired by the gunman, he made a decision to fall back...
Using a cellphone, the chief called a police landline with a message that set the stage for what would prove to be a disastrous delay in interrupting the attack: The gunman has an AR-15, he told them, but he is contained; we need more firepower and we need the building surrounded.
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...breakdowns in communication and tactical decisions that were out of step with years of police preparations for school shootings may have contributed to additional deaths, and certainly delayed critical medical attention to the wounded.
A tactical team led by Border Patrol officers ultimately ignored orders [ArreDoDo’s orders] not to breach the classroom, interviews revealed, after a 10-year-old girl inside the classroom warned 911 dispatchers that one of the two teachers in the room was in urgent need of medical attention.
