FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
Dire cop-response puzzle: Where was chief’s radio?
Texas state investigators are probing whether Uvalde Schools Police Chief Peter Arredondo even had a police radio on him when he made the disastrous decision to have officers stand back — instead of confronting mass shooter Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 kids and two teachers, a law-enforcement source told The Post.
The lack of a police radio may explain why Arredondo decided to hold officers back as terrified students called 911 from inside the school begging for help, investigators with the state’s Department of Public Safety believe.
“That’s going to be key,” the source said, “if those 911 calls were being communicated to the officers or the incident commander.”
Ramos crashed a pickup truck into a ditch outside Robb Elementary on Tuesday, and climbed a fence before gaining entry through a door left propped open, officials have said.
Cops entered the school about two minutes after the gunman had barricaded himself in a classroom, where all 21 victims were slain. But officials have said Arredondo ordered officers to hold off entering the classroom, despite pleas from parents outside that someone try to save the children.
“We’re still trying to determine if he had a radio on him, if he was monitoring the communication channels,” the source said.
“If they were being relayed, it also raises questions as to why it was not treated as an activeshooter situation.”
‘So much confusion’
“The problem right now is there’s so much confusion” about who was on the scene, the source said, noting officers from multiple agencies rushed to the school once 911 calls started coming in.
Arredondo, who was the highest ranking officer and among the first to arrive, refused to speak to The Post on Saturday, but has spoken with the Texas Rangers, who are conducting the interviews for the Department of Public Safety’s investigation into the response at the school, the source said.
Officials have said Arredondo believed officers needed more equipment and personnel before they stormed the classroom, with Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, saying in a briefing Friday Arredondo “made the wrong decision.”
But one cop who was on the scene told The Post that Arredondo was wrongly blamed.
“It’s a lie that Arredondo told everyone to stand down,” said the officer, who didn’t want to be named. “It’s a lie. And we’re all getting death threats. It’s a f--king nightmare.”
Arredondo, a Uvalde native who is set to join Uvalde’s City Council after he won 70% of an election vote earlier this month, had plenty of active-shooter training to fall back on, one of his former bosses said.
Ray Garner, who supervised Arredondo when he worked at
Laredo’s school district, said, “We train [officers] to go straight for the shooters and neutralize them.”
The school district hosted an active-shooter drill just two months ago at Uvalde HS.
One of Arredondo’s neighbors slammed him Saturday, as local police guarded his home.
“Pete Arredondo is a coward. He didn’t do his job. He failed the children,” said Lydia Torres, 56.
We’re still trying to determine if he had a radio on him, if he was monitoring the communication channels. — Law-enforcement source on Uvalde Schools Police Chief Peter Arredondo (left)