More information has come to light about how the Uvalde police completely mishandled the response to the school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead — and prepare to be even more infuriated.
via People:
According to the San Antonio News Express, surveillance footage seems to indicate that neither Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo nor any other officer ever attempted to open the doors where the gunman held two classrooms full of children — and that one of the doors may have been unlocked the whole time.
Surveillance video seems to show that the first time anyone tried to breach the doorway was when they had received the keys, more than an hour after the shooting began.
According to ABC News, there were 77 minutes between the moment when the 18-year-old gunman entered the school and when he was finally shot by police.
Police sources tell ABC News that investigators now believe the gunman couldn’t have locked the doors to the classroom from the inside. In a June 6 interview with ABC, teacher Arnulfo Reyes, who was wounded in the shooting that killed 11 of his students, said that he had previously complained that the door to classroom 111 did not properly lock from the inside.
The newest allegations seem to undermine Arredondo’s claims that he had to wait to receive the keys before entering the classroom and engaging with the gunman.
According to KSAT-TV, the gunman is spotted on surveillance video opening the door to classroom 111 — the same room that Reyes said had the faulty lock.
The latest development comes just one day after NPR reported that the city of Uvalde has hired a private law firm to help prevent the release of surveillance videos and bodycam footage from the incident.
The investigation into the police response is ongoing.
The entire department should be fired.
