Senator: Chief didn’t know of 911 calls

Lawmaker puts focus on failure throughout system

The commander overseeing police during a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was not informed of panicked 911 calls coming from students trapped inside and it’s unclear who at the scene was aware of the calls as the massacre unfolded, a Texas state senator said Thursday.

Sen. Roland Gutierrez said it was a “system failure” that school district police Chief Pete Arredondo received no word of the pleas for help from people inside Robb Elementary School on May 24.

“I want to know specifically who was receiving the 911 calls,” Gutierrez said during a news conference.

The Democrat who represents Uvalde said no single person or entity was fully to blame for the massacre. But, Gutierrez said, Republican Gov. Greg Abbot should accept some of the responsibility for failures in the police response.

“There was error at every level. Greg Abbott has plenty of blame in all of this,” Gutierrez said.

Nineteen children and two teachers died in the attack at Robb Elementary School.

Earlier this week, Abbott ordered the state to conduct in-person school district security audits and asked top lawmakers to convene a legislative committee to make recommendations on school and firearm safety, mental health and other issues.

Gutierrez is among several lawmakers who have urged Abbott to call a special session in response to the shooting.

On Thursday, the governor also directed the state education agency to estimate how much new school safety measures would cost, have schools inspect exterior doors weekly, and “develop strategies to encourage school districts to increase the presence of trained law enforcement officers and school marshals on campuses.”

The gunman in Uvalde, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside the school, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed by law enforcement, according to an official timeline.

Since the shooting, law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details of the event and how police responded, sometimes providing conflicting information or withdrawing some statements hours later.

Gutierrez said it’s unclear if any details from the 911 calls were being shared with law enforcement officers from multiple agencies on the scene.

“Uvalde PD was the one receiving the 911 calls for 45 minutes while officers were sitting in a hallway, while 19 officers were sitting in a hallway for 45 minutes” Gutierrez said. “We don’t know if it was being communicated to those people or not.”

But, the senator said, the Commission on State Emergency Communications told him the school district police chief did not know. Officials at the commission have not responded to a telephone message seeking comment.

“He’s the incident commander. He did not receive (the) 911 calls,” Gutierrez said.