Former Uvalde police chief refuses to watch bodycam footage of mass shooting

Pete Arredondo, the former police chief of the Uvalde School District, refused to view bodycam footage from the day of the mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

“It’s hard for me to see that,” he said in an interview with CNN that aired Friday. “These are my kids, too. People understand that. We walked the halls every day and stressed that we should keep the doors locked, stressed that we should be vigilant, and the less I see the ones I don’t need to see, the better for me.”

This is the first time Arredondo has spoken out since he was charged and pleaded guilty to child endangerment in June. He told CNN he had been made a “scapegoat” for police failures in the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

Arredondo, who served as the incident commander that day, was on the scene with nearly 400 other police officers and waited 77 minutes to confront and kill the gunman. The Justice Department reported that the police response that day was marked by “cascading errors.”

Arredondo also told CNN he did not remember being told there were any students still alive in the shooter’s classroom. Fourth-grader Khloie Torres called 911 from the classroom and told the 911 operator to “please hurry” because “there are a lot of bodies.” Arredondo said he learned of Khloie’s call three days after the mass shooting. However, bodycam footage shows the call was relayed over police radios, but Arredondo interrupted.

Although Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said Arredondo was the incident commander that day, Arredondo said DPS officers should have set up a command post and taken control of the scene. According to the indictment against Arredondo, Arredondo made decisions that slowed the police response to the shooter, such as failing to recognize that it was a shooting and failing to follow his police training.

“I know we did the best we could with what we had,” he told CNN.

Arredondo’s lawyer, who sat with him during the interview, said there was “not a single coward on the scene” that day.

Arredondo said being a police officer was his “passion” and he hoped to regain people’s trust.

“It’s sad that I lost it because of lies and deception and misleading statements and representations that were false,” he said.

Brett Cross, whose 10-year-old son Uziyah was murdered in the massacre, criticized CNN on social media for giving Arredondo a platform to tell his side of the story.

More emergency calls were released on Saturday after The Associated Press and other news organizations sued the city of Uvalde to release them.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” a teacher said tearfully to an emergency operator before hanging up.

The shooter’s uncle, Armando Ramos, also called 911 and asked to speak to his nephew, arguing that the shooter would stop if he told him to.

“He listens to everything I tell him,” Ramos said. “Maybe he could resign or do something to turn himself in,” he added, his voice breaking.