Uvalde School Police Chief Says They'll Start Cooperating With Investigation Once 'The Families Quit Grieving'

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief is finally explaining why he and his team have suddenly stopped cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation into the devastating mass shooting that took place at Robb Elementary School last month. And his answer is just as cowardly and misguided as his response to the active shooter.

As you well know by now, 19 students and two teachers were tragically killed in Uvalde, Texas after an 18-year-old man opened fire in a classroom while police officers stood outside doing nothing for “roughly an hour.” In fact, the only substantial thing they seemed to have done during that time, according to reports, is keep desperate parents from entering the building and helping their children, including handcuffing and pepper spraying them, per The Journal. So infuriating.

Now, the police chief is once again seemingly failing the people of his community by not cooperating with an investigation into their slow response to the shooter. Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the on-scene incident commander at the time, suddenly stopped providing investigators with information — and now he’s explaining why.

When confronted by CNN‘s Shimon Prokupecz on Wednesday, he explained he’ll start cooperating again “once the families quit grieving.” WTF?! Chatting with Shimon outside of his office, Pete declared:

“We’re not going to release anything. We have people in our community being buried. We’re gonna be respectful.”

When given an opportunity to “explain [himself] to the parents,” as Shimon put it, Pete responded:

“We’re going to do that eventually, obviously. And whenever this is done, once the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously.”

Whoa… What an insensitive way to word it. To think that any of these families will just “quit grieving” one day, especially those that lost a child, is astounding. We should definitely note that Pete’s tone wasn’t antagonistic in any way – he just clearly doesn’t understand that the pain these families are feeling today won’t ever subside. And, TBH, it just seems like an excuse to delay sharing more information, which, of course, we’re sure all of these families are eager for!

Interestingly, he also claimed that he and his team have been “in contact with DPS every day,” despite reports arguing otherwise. Huh. Check out the full exchange (below).

Sadly, Pete’s not the only one trying to keep quiet about the massacre. New reports have emerged that journalists will now face arrests and charges if they are caught reporting while on Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District property, including police offices. Similarly, the county district attorney, Christina Mitchell, has also reportedly issued a gag order on the investigation (details below).

NEW – Journalists will face arrest, charges if caught reporting while on Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District propertyhttps://t.co/U8fgEjFlZJ

— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) June 1, 2022

We tried to ask Uvalde County DA, Christina Mitchell Busbee if she would allow the release of information. She refused to answer. State investigators say they can no longer release information per her request. Many questions still need to be answered. pic.twitter.com/6Y3aziHj4K

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 2, 2022

It’s just so heartbreaking to see how these people in power are doing everything they can to protect themselves when they couldn’t — or rather (allegedly) didn’t — do the same for those elementary students and teachers whose lives were taken far too soon.

Thoughts? Let us know (below).

[Image via CNN /NBC News /YouTube]