United states

Uvalde mayor blasts report saying police officer asked for permission to shoot gunman but didn’t get a response in time

Mayor Don McLaughlin on Thursday disputed the first part of the Center for Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) report, which said a Uvalde police officer with a rifle spotted the shooter outside the school, but the superintendent either did not hear him or responded too late when asked for permission to fire.

“Not a single Uvalde police officer saw the shooter on May 24 before he entered the school,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “No Uvalde police officers had the opportunity to shoot the shooter.”

The gunman ended up killing 19 young students and two teachers in a classroom before authorities eventually entered the classroom more than an hour later.

The pain surrounding the tragedy has been compounded by finger-pointing and blame-shifting by various agencies investigating the school shooting — one of the deadliest in U.S. history — and its aftermath.

On Friday, the chairman of the Texas House investigative committee looking into the shooting, Dustin Burroughs, tweeted that the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) had denied the committee’s request to include in its report a 77-minute video from a hallway outside a school classroom. , before being drilled.

Burroughs said DPS cited Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell-Busby’s objection to the release of the video.

The footage does not show the victims or the shooting, according to Burroughs.

CNN has reached out to Mitchell-Busby for comment.

“DPS believes the video is likely to bring clarity to the public regarding the tragic events at Uvalde,” DPS said in its response to the request.

“We do not believe that its public release would harm our investigative efforts.” In fact, releasing this video would help us provide as much transparency to the public as possible without interfering with the investigation in the way that immediate public release of all the evidence would.”

But the agency said Mitchell-Busby “objects to the release of the video and has instructed us not to.”

“As the person with the authority to determine whether any prosecution should result from the events at Uvalde, we are guided by her professional judgment regarding the potential impact of the release of the video,” DPS said.

The report cites deadly missed opportunities and mistakes

This week’s report by Texas State University’s Active Shooter and Attack Response Training Center cited a series of deadly missed opportunities and response errors, including two unlocked school doors and a lack of effective command.

Pete Blair, executive director of ALERRT, defended the report in a statement, saying the source for every element of his timeline was clearly shown in the document.

Blair said the information about the officer who may have fired at the shooter was based on the officer’s statements to DPS.

Referring to the report, Blair added: “Ultimately, the decision to use deadly force always rests with the officer who will use the force. If the officer was not confident that he could hit his target and his background if he missed, he should not have fired.”

McLaughlin said a Uvalde employee saw someone outside “but was not sure who he saw and also observed children in the area.”

“At the end of the day, it was a coach with kids on the playground, not the shooter,” the mayor said.

McLaughlin said that contrary to the DPS report and timeline, troopers were at the school’s door about three minutes after the shooter and dozens of others entered during the break-in.

Blair said the mayor’s statements about DPS troopers “may or may not be accurate” but were “not relevant to our review.”

The mayor called the “premature release of partial information” about the investigation a “disservice” to the victims’ families and promised to release all city records once the reviews are complete.

The ALERRT assessment, released Wednesday, was created using school video, third-party video, surveillance cameras, radio logs, oral testimony from officers and statements from investigators.

ALERRT said the document should not be taken as a “final or definitive report as not all investigative avenues have been exhausted”.

In a statement, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the report confirmed earlier testimony by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Stephen McCraw, adding that the assessment was “very difficult for me to read.”

There will also be reports from the FBI, the Texas Rangers and the district attorney in the “coming weeks and months,” Patrick said.

Arredondo asked to leave the city council

Pete Arredondo, Uvalde’s embattled school police chief, requested a temporary leave of absence from the Uvalde City Council to “focus on addressing school issues related to the tragedy” about two weeks before he resigned, according to a copy of the request via email, which he did with a city that CNN obtained through a request for information. Arredondo resigned from his City Council post on July 2 after the City Council voted unanimously to deny his request for a leave of absence and he missed two consecutive City Council meetings.

“This request is made in an effort to reduce any unnecessary interruptions during council meetings aimed at considering agenda items. This temporary leave of absence will allow me to focus on addressing school issues related to the tragedy that occurred in our community on May 24th,” Arredondo wrote in the June 21 email.

At the time Arredondo emailed the leave request, he planned to continue serving in his post, the document shows.

CNN’s Rosa Flores, Rosalina Nieves and Christina McSouris contributed to this report.