The Uvalde City Council met Tuesday to extend the mayor鈥檚 emergency declaration as questions remain about law enforcement鈥檚 response to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary school that killed 19 children and two educators.
Notably absent from the meeting was the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, Pete Arredondo, who for his slow response to the shooting.
Arredondo as a city councilmember in a closed door meeting last week after winning an election earlier this year.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 communicated with Pete Arredondo in a week 鈥� week and a half,鈥� Mayor Don McLaughlin told reporters after the meeting.
The mayor said he has not been briefed on the ongoing investigation into what happened.
鈥淲e asked for a briefing or something but we鈥檙e not getting it. I鈥檝e been told that we鈥檙e not law enforcement and we鈥檙e not going to be entitled to it,鈥� McLaughlin said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating.鈥�
Yet at the same time, the mayor said he has not asked his own city police chief for a briefing on the investigation, even though the city鈥檚 police department was at the school during the shooting.
McLaughlin did say the U.S. Department of Justice, which is reviewing the response at his request, will name a team as soon as Wednesday to investigate the police response.
He said he trusted law enforcement to do its job but acknowledged 鈥渕issteps鈥� on the part of the Texas Department of Public Safety in the days following the shooting.
鈥淵ou know, we had some missteps, with the DPS releasing some facts and different things,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ell, we were told one thing one day, and the next day, the story, the narrative changed, you were told for a week the teacher propped the door open with a rock. And at the end of the week, that story was gone, too.鈥�
The official narrative on the shooting has changed drastically several times in the last two weeks, adding to the anger and pain felt by the community following the school massacre.
It turned out the gunman spent more than an hour in the school, when DPS Director Steve McCraw originally claimed law enforcement 鈥渋mmediately breached鈥� the school.
According to State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, 9-1-1 calls were being sent to the Uvalde Police Department rather than the Uvalde CISD Department, which led the response on the scene.
McLaughlin said the Uvalde police chief happened to be on vacation at the time of the shooting.
Among other things, Arredondo did not have a radio on him at the time of the shooting.
In the two weeks since the shooting, he has been silent.
When asked about Arredondo鈥檚 ability to serve on the council, McLaughlin said he couldn鈥檛 speak for him.
鈥淧ete Arredondo was elected by the people in his district. So it's up to his district and his people. And it's up to Mr. Arredondo to what he wants to do. I can't speak for him. And I'm not going to try to speak for him. Why is he not here? Again, I can't answer that.鈥�
McLaughlin defended his swearing in of Arredondo behind closed doors.
鈥淚 didn't think we needed a great big ceremony with people here in town out of respect for these families. So we did we had three councilmen swear in that day. We did it according to law. We did it just privately. We didn鈥檛 have a puppet show out of respect for these families,鈥� McLaughlin said. 鈥淚 didn't even I didn't I didn't even want to have this meeting today. But we have to extend this declaration.鈥�
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