UVALDE, Texas — After former Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo defended himself in a TV interview, those who lost loved ones at the Robb Elementary School shooting watched, feeling angry, disrespected and disgusted.
“To claim that you’re a scapegoat, that you did no wrong, is absolutely appalling," said Brett Cross, father of Uziyah Garica, one of the 19 children killed at Robb on May 24, 2022.
Cross looks forward to the day Arredondo stands trial.
Arredondo was indicted in June on 10 counts of child endangerment. Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer with Uvalde CISD, was also indicted and charged with 29 counts of child endangerment.
During the CNN interview, Arredondo sat alongside his attorney, claiming he was singled out from day one and rejecting the allegation that he failed to follow active shooter training protocol. The indictment alleges Arredondo treated the shooting as a barricaded subject versus an active shooter situation.
Arredondo told CNN: “We did the best we could with what we had.”
"If you look at the bodycam footage, there was no hesitation," he said. "Myself and the first handful of officers that went in there and went straight to the hot zone as you may call it and took fire. At that point, we worked with what we had."
Arredondo shifted responsibility for failed leadership, saying DPS officers should have taken over incident command. He was also asked about the absence of urgency to breach the classroom, which led to the following exchange between reporter Ed Lavandera and Arredondo:
“We couldn’t, again you can’t see what’s on the other side of the wall,” Arredondo said.
“But you’re supposed to get through that wall,” Lavandera said.
Official assessments on the Robb Elementary shooting, including the U.S. Department of Justice’s review released in January, analyzed law enforcement’s botched response, emphasizing the need for improved active shooter training.
“But the fact of the matter is he (Arredondo) was one of the first on scene and in active shooter training, you are taught to stop the shooting, stop the killing, something that he did not do,” Cross said.
Arredondo declined to watch body camera video of law enforcement’s response to the shooting, saying it’s difficult to watch.
“These are my children too,” Arredondo said.
That particular comment infuriated Cross.
“And then he wants to turn around and say these are my kids too, which is probably the most infuriating thing about that interview. Saying that they’re your kids, that is insulting my child,” Cross said.
Jesse Rizo, uncle of Robb victim Jackie Cazares, knows Arredondo will be shown the body camera footage when the trial eventually gets underway. Rizo is keeping optimistic about the future of securing some form of justice.
“I hope that he has to see that for the rest of his life,” he said. “We mentioned a long time ago that we were not going to leave any stone unturned and we’re going to continue doing that until justice is served.”