(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – A newly leaked video shows a shocking confession by the former police chief in Uvalde, Texas, that he decided to abandon the students targeted by gunman Saldavor Ramos during the mass shooting in May, which claimed 21 lives.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, by Ramos, a former student.
The shooting sparked outrage due to the actions of the local police, which didn’t intervene for 77 minutes, and the shooter was confronted and killed only by a tactical unit of the US Border Patrol that arrived later.
An hour-long video of the investigators’ interrogation of Uvalde’s then-school police chief, Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, in which he admitted that he made the “horrible” call not to try to rescue students trapped with the shooter, was leaked by CNN.
The interrogation was conducted the day after the shooting, with Arredondo smiling and making jokes as he defended his actions during the interview.
The then-still acting police chief of Uvalde insisted that he made the right call by evacuating the rest of the school while abstaining from tackling the gunman to save those the attacker had trapped in a classroom.
“When I opened the [school] door, I saw the smoke… Shots started firing,” Arredondo said.
“Obviously, I backed off and started taking cover,” he added.
The CNN report pointed out that this clearly violated officers’ training to “neutralize” active shooters.
“I know there’s probably victims in there and with the shots I heard, I know there’s probably somebody who’s going to be deceased,” Arredondo acknowledged.
He then claimed that the police guidance was not to confront a shoot but to seek to evacuate others.
“Once I realized that was going on, my first thought is that we need to vacate [the rest of the school]… We’re taking [other] kids out first,” the now-fired police chief said.
“I know this is horrible… [but that’s what] our training tells us to do,” he added.
“We have him contained, there’s probably going to be some deceased in there — but we don’t need any more from out here,” Arredondo said further regarding how he handled the gunman.
The CNN report pointed out that the school police officer had been in active-shooter training at least three times. The last time was months before the Uvalde school massacre.
“First responders to the active shooter scene will usually be required to place themselves in harm’s way and display uncommon acts of courage to save the innocent,” instructs the course in question.
In his interview with the investigators, Arredondo exposed more of his questionable actions during the shooting.
“We’re going to get scrutinized, I’m expecting that. We’re getting scrutinized for why we didn’t go in there,” the cop said.
He insisted he was right to wait for hundreds of officers to arrive, including snipers, before the classroom with the gunman was stormed.
“I didn’t want this dude to come out. I didn’t want him to pop up somewhere and run off,” Arredondo said with a chuckle.
He also joked that he knew the Border Patrol officers because “most of them are Anglo — they stand out to us.”
Uvalde school police chief admits he deliberately left kids in classroom https://t.co/5nFNBzrLOK pic.twitter.com/SYMdAYbKBR
— New York Post (@nypost) January 11, 2023
