UVALDE, Texas — CNN has obtained new video of an interview that the former chief of police for Uvalde's school district, Pete Arredondo, gave to investigators the morning after a gunman murdered 19 at Robb Elementary.
The 57 minutes of footage show Arredondo attempting to explain his actions, telling investigators he assumed students in the room with the shooter on May 24 were already dead, leading to his decision to clear students from surrounding classrooms.
We now know those statements are wrong; at least three victims were pulled out of the room alive before eventually dying from their injuries.
"My first thought is that we need to, we need to vacate," Arredondo can be heard telling investigators. "We have him contained, and I know this is horrible, I know what our training tells us to do, but we have him contained. There's probably gonna be some deceased in there, but we don't need anymore from out here.
"So I called out and I said, 'Get these kids out,' whatever I told them, 'Bust those windows, get them out.'"
The stunning admissions came while Arredondo, fired from his position in August, was being questioned by the FBI and Texas Rangers.
Arredondo explains he kept trying to talk to the shooter. For the first time, CNN also learned he heard the gunman reloading his weapon while alone in a room full of children.
And still he took no action that stopped the gunman.
"I'm certain I heard him reload," he can be heard saying in the footage. "I heard something over the pin. We all know what that sounds like... I'm assuming he reloaded, but I know he did something with it."
Now considered one of the worst law enforcement failures in recent memory, Arredondo said he knew that criticism would come.
"We're gonna get scrutinized," he told investigators. "I'm expecting that, we're gonna get scrutinized (about) why we didn't even go in there."
Days later, Arredondo would be labeled the "incident commander" of the law enforcement response at Robb by Texas state police officials. They say he was the officer in charge, and the man to blame for the deadly delay.
'I need a lot of firepower'
Arredondo, who presided over a six-person police force before he was terminated by the Uvalde CISD school board in August, declined to provide comment to CNN for their story. Through his lawyer he has previously denied that he was ever in charge, and said he never issued any orders.
A CNN analysis of the never-before-made-public body camera footage and newly obtained phone calls reveal Arredondo repeatedly directed the officers around him not to enter the room with the gunman. That happened at 11:40 a.m., just seven minutes after the shooting began.
"This is an emergency right now," Arredondo can be heard relaying to his team. "I'm inside the building with this man, he has an AR-15. He shot a whole bunch of times. He's in one room. I need a lot of firepower, so I need this building surrounded. I need it surrounded with as many AR-15s as possible."
As more officers with body cameras responded to the scene, Arredondo can be heard starting to talk to the shooter.
"Sir, this is Arredondo with the school district police. Can you please put your firearm down?" he can be heard saying. "We don't want anyone else hurt, sir."
He can then be seen trying to open the door to an adjacent classroom while relaying commands to other officers.
"We're going to clear out before we do any breaching," he says. "We're going to clear out these kids' class."
"As soon as they clear this room, I'm going to verify what's been vacated, guys, before we do any kind of breaching," he continues to tell fellow law enforcement. "Time is on our side right now. I know we probably have kids in there, but we've got to save the lives of the other ones."
Time wasn't on Arredondo's side, and it reflects a mindset that goes directly against active-shooter training.
The policy emphasizes speed, and for any officers to go immediately towards the sound of gunfire and stop the shooter.
Arredondo last completed the training in December of 2021, fives months before the Uvalde massacre.
'We're going to clear the building first'
At about 12:12 p.m., a crucial transmission from the Uvalde dispatcher comes over the radios in the Robb Elementary hallway, informing the officers that a child in the room with the gunman called 911, saying she's surrounded by victims.
The dispatch blares within earshot of Arredondo. He doesn't seem to hear it because he's talking, repeating instructions for officers not to enter.
"Hey guys, hold on, we're going to clear the building first and then we'll (go) tactical," he says. "But we're going to empty these out, these classrooms first."
The officers actually turn down their radios so they can hear Arredondo give the order. It seems clear to the men on this side of the hallway that he is in charge.
"No entry until the chief of police gives you permission there," one of them can be heard saying.
And when a nearby officer suggests that Border Patrol agents look like they are about to go in, Arredondo directs otherwise.
"Get ready for friendlies," a constable says.
"Tell them to f***ing wait!" Arredondo responds.
"Nobody entry!" the constable says in return.
Arredondo said he assumed Border Patrol agents at the other end of the hallway would be the ones to make the breach, since they had rifles and he and his men only had pistols.
"So I know those are BP (Border Patrol) and I know those are probably BORTAC (Border Patrol Tactical Unit)," he can be heard saying. "Smart thing for us to do, obviously with a handgun, is we need to let these guys make entry when it's that time."
But it wasn't just handguns on his part of the hallway. Body camera footage clearly shows there were plenty of heavily armed officers on the scene, some of them arriving in the very first moments after the shooting began.
In his interview with investigators, Arredondo also explains for the first time why he thought the door was locked, admitting he never tried to open it.
"I have it in my, a picture in my mind, that I saw that hammer in there," he says. "And usually when that's there, that's locked, man. 90% of the time."
We now know investigators believe the door was in fact unlocked, and there was no need to wait for a key.
At the end of his interview, Arredondo says that rather than breaching the door, he even considered trying to shoot through the walls to kill the gunman.
"The thought crossed my mind to start shooting through that wall, which would have been stupid," he can be heard saying. "But you, you start thinking there's already somebody deceased in there. But you know, obviously we, we don't ever train to shoot through walls. It's not something that... it's not probably the smartest idea, but, you know, you always question yourself."
The full 57-minute interview is available on CNN's website.
>MORE UVALDE COVERAGE: