INTERVIEWER 1:
All right, let me just get some basic information from you.
INTERVIEWER 2:
It’s May 25, 2022, approximately 8:20 p.m. We’re at the Uvalde Police Department in Uvalde, Texas.
MALE VOICE [on phone]:
Yes, sir.
INTERVIEWER 3:
Hey, Jason. It's Phillip [inaudible], Texas Rangers.
MALE VOICE [on phone]:
Yes, sir.
INTERVIEWER 3:
All right, brother, this is an audio-video interview over the phone. I appreciate your answering my call.
NARRATOR:
Soon after one of the deadliest school shootings in the U.S., state and federal investigators sat down with police and other law enforcement officers to ask them about their actions that day.
INTERVIEWER 4:
OK.
INTERVIEWER 5:
All right. Mr. Brown, the reason why we're here is we are investigating the incident that occurred on Tuesday, the shooting at the Robb Elementary.
NARRATOR:
Their statements were being gathered as part of a Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation into a chaotic response that took 77 minutes before officers stormed a classroom and killed the gunman.
INTERVIEWER 6:
Can you kind of just lead me through the events of that day?
NARRATOR:
More than a year and a half later, the findings of the investigation have not been made public. State prosecutors have said they plan to present the findings to a grand jury.
INTERVIEWER 7:
Push record here. OK, I see the numbers move. In reference to the incident that happened at Robb Elementary.
INTERVIEWER 8:
We just need to get your side as to what you saw and what happened, OK?
NARRATOR:
The Texas Tribune, ProPublica and FRONTLINE gained access to a trove of the investigative materials, including bodycam footage, 911 calls—
911 DISPATCHER:
Uvalde County, 911.
NARRATOR:
—and hundreds of recorded interviews.
INTERVIEWER 9:
And it’s my understanding that you were working the day of the incident. Is that correct?
OFFICER JUSTIN MENDOZA, Uvalde Police Dept.
Yes, sir.
NARRATOR:
These are the firsthand accounts of the officers who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary.
INTERVIEWER 10:
We’ll go ahead and start this interview. Agent Valdez, do you remember that day, the 24th?
MALE NEWSREADER:
Twenty-one people killed, including 19 young students.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
NARRATOR:
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting in Uvalde, officers were praised for how they’d responded.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-Texas):
Law enforcement officials did what they do. They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire.
NARRATOR:
But quickly a different story began to emerge.
JUDY WOODRUFF, PBS NewsHour:
There were growing concerns today about how police responded to the deadly elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas.
LOMI KRIEL, Reporter, ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigative unit:
After the governor praised the response, and then it turned out that was almost the opposite that happened, we knew that we had to figure out what really occurred that day and ask questions about why it all went so wrong.
NARRATOR:
Lomi Kriel is an investigative reporter with ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. For over a year, she and a team of reporters have been analyzing the trove of evidence they obtained and writing about the breakdowns in the response.
LOMI KRIEL:
This is the first time we have ever received this amount of information for a mass shooting. Frankly, it's typically rare to get this for any kind of criminal case, but particularly for mass shootings, where that is often withheld for years, if it's ever released publicly.
What we did was line up the more than two dozen body cams, go through it, try to identify officers, transcribe the body cameras and then start poring through the hundreds of hours of law enforcement interviews that are on this file.
NARRATOR:
With a possible criminal case looming, most of the officers involved in the response have declined to talk publicly, or to us, about what happened. But we were able to review the accounts that almost 150 of them gave to investigators.
LOMI KRIEL:
Law enforcement officers who responded, they spoke openly about what happened that day, including voicing their own fears, their concerns and their regrets. And we realized by going through it that perhaps we could piece together some of what happened that day.
INTERVIEWER:
We do have some questions, and we kind of want to clarify some things that happened yesterday.
CHIEF PETE ARREDONDO, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District:
Sure.
INTERVIEWER:
So let’s just start with how your day started yesterday.
NARRATOR:
Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was interviewed the day after the shooting. He would later be heavily criticized for his handling of the response.
PETE ARREDONDO:
Y’all bear with me, because this is probably one of the first times I’m telling the entire story. I’m trying to think as I’m going.
It wasn’t noon yet, I know that. But it was probably not far from noon.
NARRATOR:
At 11:28 a.m., surveillance footage from behind the school shows a truck driving into a ditch. A teacher calls 911.
911 DISPATCHER:
Uvalde County, 911.
TEACHER:
Yes, there was just an accident right here, behind Robb School.
911 DISPATCHER:
Behind Robb School?
TEACHER:
Yes, they ran into the ditch.
911 DISPATCHER:
What, how many vehicles, ma’am?
TEACHER:
It’s one truck. It’s a pickup truck.
NARRATOR:
Two witnesses approach the vehicle, and the driver starts shooting.
TEACHER:
Oh, my God, they’re running. I don’t know why. Oh, my God, he has a gun.
NARRATOR:
The dispatcher calls for police to respond.
911 DISPATCHER:
If I can have you around to 715 Old Carrizo Road, we have a one-vehicle accident, white pickup truck crashed in a ditch. I have a caller advising male subject has a gun.
UNKNOWN OFFICER [on radio]:
Be advised shots fired, shots fired.
PETE ARREDONDO:
I heard the word "gunshot." I didn’t quite catch the whole transmission. Obviously, grab the keys and start running out the door to get to your unit. And then I heard "Robb School."
I remember we have to carry two radios because we have school campus radio to communicate with the campuses, and then we have a police radio. Unfortunately, I don't have holsters for those. They got in my way, I threw them. And obviously I'm running at this point.
NARRATOR:
In addition to not having a radio, Chief Arredondo did not have a body camera. This is footage from other officers arriving around the same time.
Uvalde Police Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales was also among the first to respond.
STAFF SGT. EDUARDO CANALES, Uvalde Police Dept.:
So I stop. I get out, and I'm kind of, like, blindfolded. I don't see the accident. I don't see no accident. However, I hear a bunch of people yelling, "He went in the building." Still not thinking this is an active shooter, I'm thinking, "OK, those are 1050. This guy has a gun, a Glock, maybe, I don't know. And he ran in the school trying to get away from law enforcement, trying to [unintelligible] grounds." It still hasn't hit me that this guy was actually there as an active shooter.
NARRATOR:
He arrived on the scene with Lt. Javier Martinez.
JAVIER MARTINEZ, Uvalde Police Dept.:
I had no idea what I was walking into. We actually thought we were going to an accident scene, where, what I thought was an accident, and they're shooting at each other . . . Road rage. That was my, that was my first thought.
NARRATOR:
Arriving with Chief Arredondo was Uvalde Police Sgt. Daniel Coronado. His body camera shows the chief running towards the school.
SGT. DANIEL CORONADO, Uvalde Police Dept.:
Guys, be careful! He might be in that building.
DANIEL CORONADO:
We start running and kinda towards—I don't know where I was at, at the time.
OK, Uvalde, they’re saying that he’s possibly in the building on the—Oh, s---, shots fired! Get inside! Go, go, go!
Then I hear a lot of gunfire and my heart sank because I thought, oh, s---, I think he's either engaging officers or he's in the building.
Shots fired inside the building, Uvalde.
NARRATOR:
As they get close, they hear the tail end of more than 100 rounds being fired inside the school.
EDUARDO CANALES:
As soon as we heard it, we went in. There was no question about it. We heard it, and I told Javi Martinez, "It’s gunfire, we need to get in there."
NARRATOR:
Staff Sgt. Canales and other officers rush into the school on the northwest side of the building.
NARRATOR:
A surveillance camera shows the officers moving down the hallway toward Classrooms 111 and 112, where they think the gunfire came from.
EDUARDO CANALES
Watch that door. Watch that door.
NARRATOR:
Within seconds, Chief Arredondo, Sgt. Coronado and other officers enter the school at the opposite end of the hall.
DANIEL CORONADO:
It's just smoke everywhere.
PETE ARREDONDO:
It’s an AR.
NARRATOR:
The officers recognize it’s an AR-15 style rifle.
DANIEL CORONADO:
I was like, OK, well, this is it. I mean, we're probably going to get hit because the way he was shooting, he's probably going to take all of us out. I looked over, and I glance and I can see the bullet holes all through the walls.
EDUARDO CANALES:
I remember the window, and I remember it was pitch black in there.
INTERVIEWER:
OK.
EDUARDO CANALES:
Like, I could not see the inside that room. It was pitch black.
NARRATOR:
The gunman fires through the door of one of the classrooms, grazing Staff Sgt. Canales and Lt. Martinez.
EDUARDO CANALES:
F---, am I bleeding? Am I bleeding? Am I bleeding?
I started feeling like blood or something. I was like, was I shot? What’s going on? And Javier was like, "Hey, I feel like," so we both kind of retreat back a little bit towards where we barely entered. We kind of turned around. We were just like—I didn't know if this guy was going to come out.
NARRATOR:
Surveillance footage shows Lt. Martinez going back down the hallway alone, then returning to where others officers are positioned.
LOMI KRIEL:
The first few moments of a response is crucial, is what experts said. This is the best moment in time to engage the shooter and rescue any victims. So officers initially did that, and then they stumbled back when they're grazed by bullets. And that ends up really setting the stage for the rest of the response. No one tried to go into the room for another 70 minutes.
EDUARDO CANALES:
I honestly didn't think anybody was in there besides the gunman. Not that—I just honestly thought that they were in the cafeteria because it seemed like all the lights were off and it seemed like—It was really quiet. I didn't hear any screaming, any yelling. I literally didn't hear anything at all. You would think kids would be yelling and screaming.
LOMI KRIEL:
Officers after officer said that because it was so silent, they didn't hear any screams or any indication that a child was inside that wing, that they believed it was empty, even though it was the middle of a school day on one of the last days of the semester.
DETECTIVE RONALD RODRIGUEZ, Uvalde Police Dept.:
We couldn’t hear the kids. We couldn't hear him shooting anybody or anything like that. So, I guess that’s why, you know, they were waiting to make entry, because we didn’t know what was going on in there. It was too quiet.
INTERVIEWER:
I guess, in your mind, did you think there was kids in that room?
OFFICER VENTURA CHAPA, Uvalde Police Dept.:
I knew there was a possibility, because it’s a school, but I didn’t know for sure that there was kids in that room. Again, it was really quiet, and you know—I know, you know, I mean, I went to elementary school. You have your little science class where you walk out or PE or at different times of the day and hopefully other activities. I know it was also, like, the end of the year. So I was like, maybe they're doing something else, you know, not in their classrooms. But that was kind of wishful thinking.
SGT. DONALD PAGE, Uvalde Police Dept.:
Man, that hallway was so f------ quiet after the shots were done. You could literally hear yourself breathing. You didn't hear any kids. You didn't hear any teachers, nothing. And I do remember even asking Pete, “Hey, is this building clear? Is it just maybe one or two classrooms?” And he's like, he said, “I do not know.” Because, I said, you didn't hear anybody.
CPL. GREGORY VILLA, Uvalde Police Dept.:
I don’t hear any screaming. And usually I would think, you know, I put myself in the position of being that age. I probably would be like, “Oh s---.”
INTERVIEWER:
I mean, it's fight or flight.
GREGORY VILLA:
No screaming, no yelling, and it’s almost like, OK, maybe this place is empty.
LOMI KRIEL:
Children and teachers are taught to be quiet during an active shooter threat. That is their best defense to stay alive. So what the children and teachers told us and investigators is that they followed that training. So what we found was kind of this incredible contrast. The children and the teachers followed their training, but by following their training and staying quiet, that actually meant that officers thought they weren't there. And it took longer for them to help them.
NARRATOR:
After the burst of gunfire from Rooms 111 and 112, Sgt. Coronado tries to let other first responders know what is going on.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Javi, you hit?
DANIEL CORONADO:
So I'm, like, trying to get on my radio, and there's no radio connection inside the building. So I'm like, s---. And I know there's more guys coming. So I run back outside and I start getting on the radio. I start trying to give directions where to get everyone posted up.
Stay right there, guys.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
He should be contained in this office.
DANIEL CORONADO:
OK, guys, he’s inside this building. We have him contained.
NARRATOR:
An officer says the subject is contained. Coronado announces it over the radio.
DANIEL CORONADO:
We believe he's barricaded in one of the offices. Male subject, still shooting.
LOMI KRIEL:
Contained and barricaded. What those two words convey to the other officers who are arriving at the scene is that the gunman likely is inside a room alone, without any victims. And so what that does is set up a response where they're treating it like a barricaded subject rather than an active threat, where they should try getting to that room immediately. Sgt. Coronado's announcement is the first on the radio that we could find that calls this "barricaded." But many officers—in fact, nearly all of the ones that we went through—said not only that once they heard that announcement, they treated it as a barricaded suspect, but also when they arrived at the school, they continued treating it that way, despite mounting indicators that this was not the case.
INTERVIEWER:
At what point did they say, “OK, stop, barricaded subject, not active shooter"? 'Cause that's, that's big, right?
DANIEL CORONADO:
Well, to be honest with you, like I said, I mean, I don't know where that came out of, you know what I mean? You're just reacting to what you're dealing with at that moment in time. There's no distinct determination, like, “OK, now it's a barricaded subject.” I mean, when you have someone locked in a room and there's no rounds going off, and you don't know, I mean, like I said, I mean, you don't see any bodies. You don't see any blood. You don't see anybody yelling, screaming for help. Those are motivators for you to say, "Hey, get going. Move." But if you don't have that, then slow down.
INTERVIEWER:
So in your mind it was a barricaded subject?
OFFICER JUAN SAUCEDO JR., Uvalde Police Dept.:
Yes. Barricaded subject.
INTERVIEWER:
I'm asking you, in your mind, right?
JUAN SAUCEDO JR.:
In my mind, yes. Because we didn't hear any more shots. As soon as we got there, it was just complete silence.
GREGORY VILLA:
This guy's probably just a guy that wrecked out his vehicle. They didn't want to get caught by police because he's a smuggler with a gun and has now barricaded himself inside of a classroom and is shooting rounds to get us off his back, OK? I don't know if there's no kids yet.
MARIANO PARGAS, Uvalde Police Dept.:
And at the point that the shots stopped, I think, it was more like you would treat it like a barricaded person because you don't know what he has. Are they hostages? Are they? You know, the last thing we thought was that he had actually shot the kids up. We thought he had shot up in the air, broken the lights. We had no idea what was behind those doors.
911 DISPATCHER:
Uvalde County, 911.
TEACHER:
We have an active shooter at Robb. Robb Elementary has an active shooter.
NARRATOR:
At 7 minutes into the standoff, a teacher down the hall from the gunman calls 911.
TEACHER:
I don’t have a window, but I can hear gunshots outside of my classroom.
911 DISPATCHER:
You can still hear the gunshots being fired?
TEACHER:
Yeah, they’re in the building. I don’t know. There’s been a lot. A whole lot. And I got a message from somebody that somebody is shot in another classroom.
911 DISPATCHER:
Somebody is shot in a classroom, ma’am? OK, can you tell me if it’s a teacher or student?
TEACHER:
Not mine. In another one.
911 DISPATCHER:
I'm sorry, what?
TEACHER:
Another classroom. I don’t know. I don’t know. Please hurry. Hurry.
911 DISPATCHER:
OK, ma’am. What room number? Can you tell me what room?
TEACHER:
I’m in Room 102.
911 DISPATCHER:
OK, is he going to be across from you?
TEACHER:
I don’t know where he’s at right now. I got to go. I can’t let him hear me. I can’t let him hear me.
911 DISPATCHER:
It’s OK. I understand.
TEACHER:
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
911 DISPATCHER:
OK, ma’am.
TEACHER:
Hurry.
NARRATOR:
At the same time, Chief Arredondo calls in to dispatch. Officers at the other end of the hall hold their positions.
PETE ARREDONDO:
Not having a radio, I know at some point I call 911. So there’s a recording there.
PETE ARREDONDO [on phone]:
Hey. Hey, this is Arredondo. This is Arredondo. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? . . . This is an emergency right now. . . . I’m inside the building with this man. He has an AR-15.
NARRATOR:
He hears about the teacher’s call and that the gunman likely shot a person in one of the classrooms.
PETE ARREDONDO [on phone]:
Is the teacher, is the teacher with him? In the classroom?
911 DISPATCHER:
She's in another classroom. She's in 102. Room 102. Another person possibly shot across from her. They’re not sure.
PETE ARREDONDO:
OK. We have him in a room. He’s got an AR-15. He’s shot a lot. He’s in a room. He hasn’t come out yet. We’re surrounded, but I don’t have a radio with me. Please let all units know. He’s gonna be in—
911 DISPATCHER:
The shooter’s in one of the rooms. What room number, Pete?
PETE ARREDONDO:
Yes, he’s gonna be in Room 9, 10, 11, 12. He’s either in Room 111 or 112.
NARRATOR:
A call goes out for more units to respond.
911 DISPATCHER:
401 stated he’s got the shooter in Room 111 and 112. He’s gonna be armed with a rifle. Repeat, armed with a rifle. He’s requesting for SWAT by the funeral home, south of the building.
NARRATOR:
But from the footage and audio we’ve reviewed, no one is told that someone has been shot.
LOMI KRIEL:
Chief Arredondo, he doesn't, according to what we have obtained in body camera footage and call logs, seem to convey that information to anyone else. This is the first indication that now someone is injured.
NARRATOR:
The chief was not asked about this in his interview with investigators, and he didn’t respond to our requests for comment.
NARRATOR:
A few moments before the 911 call from the teacher, on the other end of the hall from Chief Arredondo, one of the officers says that the gunman is inside his wife’s classroom.
OFFICER RUBEN RUIZ, Uvalde Police Dept.:
He’s in my wife’s classroom.
NARRATOR:
The officers try to confirm that classes are in session.
EDUARDO CANALES:
See if the class is in there right now, or if they're somewhere else. Again, it’s Mireles' classroom.
911 DISPATCHER:
The classroom should be in session right now. The class should be in session. Ms. Mireles.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
That’s gonna be Ruben’s girl.
DANIEL CORONADO:
Oh, no.
UNKNOWN OFFICER 1:
Any kids in there?
UNKNOWN OFFICER 2:
Class is in session.
UNKNOWN OFFICER 3:
He’s in a classroom, right?
DEPUTY REYMUNDO LARA, Uvalde County Sheriff's Office:
Yeah, with kids.
NARRATOR:
Fifteen minutes later, the officer, Ruben Ruiz, gets a call from his wife, Eva Mireles.
OFFICER JUSTIN MENDOZA, Uvalde Police Dept.:
Hey, hey, hey. Ruben. Ruben.
RUBEN RUIZ:
She says she’s shot, Johnny.
JUSTIN MENDOZA:
He wanted to get in there. We were trying to hold him back. He's like, "Hey, Eva's in there. She shot. She shot. We need to get in there. These kids." And we know we need to get in there, but we don't have the right equipment.
We’re waiting. We got a negotiator, and we’re waiting for more shields.
I didn’t even bother throwing my rifle plates at all. Like I said, we didn’t have any shields, no flash bangs, no nothing that we could have used to create a distraction to, not only—not to sound selfish, but make sure we go home at the end of day, but at least more of these kids can go home at the end of the day. Understand this is the job we signed up for. Yeah, we put our life on the line, but none of us had never been in this type of situation. None of us ever thought any of the situation would ever happen here in Uvalde.
NARRATOR:
In their interviews, officers explained that one of the reasons they didn’t try to go into the class was the lethal nature of AR-15’s ammunition, which can puncture body armor.
GREGORY VILLA:
He could just wait for me and just pop people at the door as they’re coming in. He’s going to take us out like butter. No equipment to hold that type of round off.
NARRATOR:
The gunman had dropped a backpack full of ammunition outside the school.
DETECTIVE LOUIS LANDRY JR., Uvalde Police Dept.:
I think that was kind of holding most of us back because of what we're hearing. We found out that the backpack had 30-plus magazines full of .223 rounds in there. So that kind of, realized we weren't equipped to make entry into that room without several casualties. Going back now, that kind of haunts me that if it was a pistol or something, it would have been maybe a different thought process.
DONALD PAGE:
At that point we had no choice but just to wait and try to get something that had better coverage where we could actually stand up to him. At that point we just secured the scene and just kept him contained into what we thought at that point was that one classroom.
OFFICER JESUS MENDOZA, Uvalde Police Dept.:
But we still tried to do the best that we could. We, uh, we were there. We were trying to make sure that he didn’t go to any of the other rooms. . . . I'm kind of, like, numb to the situation. Like, I mean, I’m not going to lie, I was f------ scared, bro.
INTERVIEWER:
I'm sure, yeah.
JAVIER MARTINEZ:
Had anybody gone through that door, he would have killed whoever it was. We can only carry so many ballistic vests on you. That .223 round would have gone right through you and through the door. I mean, he was ready. He was ready for us.
NARRATOR:
Twenty-four minutes into the standoff, there are now dozens of officers from multiple agencies on the scene.
Uvalde County Sheriff Deputy Reymundo Lara is in front of Room 102—the room the teacher called from nearly 20 minutes earlier.
REYMUNDO LARA:
When I go in, I take a tactical position where I’m laying down. I’m on the corner. . . . And it was believed that, because I asked several people, “Hey, the building’s clear? Is the building clear?” And they said yes. . . . And I was like, you know, my feet need to be a little bit comfortable. So I get up, open the door. I propped it open so I could stick my leg in and lay back down. And aim at the classroom where the suspect’s at. Something's telling me, “Hey, just check the classroom.”
Hey, we got kids in here. We got kids in this room.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
In that room?
REYMUNDO LARA:
Yeah, we got kids in this room right here.
NARRATOR:
Music from a video is playing when they open the door.
REYMUNDO LARA:
Where’s the teacher? Teacher? Where’s she at?
STUDENT:
She’s right here.
REYMUNDO LARA:
Try to get this window open, and exit out that window.
STUDENT:
OK.
DONALD PAGE:
You guys OK?
REYMUNDO LARA:
I told them to exit out that window. We don’t want no crossfire, no nothing.
DONALD PAGE:
Is anyone hit? Is anyone hurt?
STUDENTS:
No.
DONALD PAGE:
You’re OK. You’re OK. Stay calm, OK?
REYMUNDO LARA:
Hey, y'all guys. Stay calm, stay calm. Hey, we need somebody to help the kids out. Yeah, out the window.
DONALD PAGE:
I’m going to go help, I’m going to go help.
NARRATOR:
Outside, Sgt. Coronado assists with evacuating the class of fourth graders.
DANIEL CORONADO:
Kids coming out. Kids coming out. Kids coming out.
We broke out the window, and he starts handing out the kids. There’s kids in there. And we start handing them out, and I’m like, “That means there’s kids everywhere.”
NARRATOR:
Deputy Lara then checks another classroom.
REYMUNDO LARA:
Are you OK? One second, stay there. Hey, I need cover. We got more kids. All right, this is what we are going to do. You’re going to come out this door, you’re going to take a left and then follow the cops, OK? Take a left. Go. Fast, fast. Go, go, go.
STUDENT:
Thank you, thank you.
DANIEL CORONADO:
So we start pulling them out, pulling them out, pulling them out. And we’re breaking the blinds. Breaking the blinds and pulling them out. And I could just, I could just see how scared they were. Sorry.
INTERVIEWER:
No, you’re good, bud. Hey, take your time. Take your time. You need to take a break. You need to step out.
DANIEL CORONADO:
I didn’t expect to—
INTERVIEWER:
You’re good. Take your time.
DANIEL CORONADO:
I didn’t expect to get emotional.
INTERVIEWER:
It’s all right. Man, this is incredibly traumatic. This is, take your time.
DANIEL CORONADO:
I could see the fear in their face. I didn’t even cry about this at all. [Cries]
INTERVIEWER:
It’s all right, man. Hey, take your time, bro. We’re going to pause the recording. You’re good, buddy.
UNKNOWN OFFICER [on radio]:
302 to units, I need to know, has there been a command post set up, and if so, where is it at?
UNKNOWN OFFICER [on radio]:
320 to 302, that’s a negative, sir. We do not have a command post at this time.
UNKNOWN OFFICER [on radio]:
10-4.
NARRATOR:
As officers waited for reinforcements from tactical units, no one established an official command post to guide the response, or designated an officer in charge.
DETECTIVE JOSE RODRIGUEZ, Uvalde Police Dept.:
Are we just waiting for BORTAC? Or what’s going on?
OFFICER MICHAEL WALLY, Uvalde Police Dept.:
I got BORTAC on the way. I need an OIC out here. I need someone to make calls.
I kept going back to, who is OIC? Who is, who’s f------ in charge? Excuse my language, but who’s in charge? I’m a patrol officer. I can’t, you know, I’m not in there. I’m not in the hallway. I’m not talking to our gunman. I’m not talking to the guy who’s talking to our gunman. No communication is coming back out to me. So there’s got to be someone else. There’s got to be someone else that's in charge. Someone tell me what to do. And you know this, you’ve probably been wearing a badge a lot longer than I have, but chain of command is everything. And it was not there.
LOMI KRIEL:
Dozens of officers said they didn't know who was in charge. That it was chaos. What experts said an incident commander would have been able to do in the situation is coordinate that communication, kind of take larger stock of what the scene is and help develop kind of a plan.
INTERVIEWER:
Do you know who the incident commander was at the time?
EDUARDO CANALES:
No, sir. From what I remember, and again, so, there was officers on the hallway on the one side of the room, and there was officers in the hallway on the other side of the room. And Chief Arredondo was on the other side of the room where I was not. So, there was, like, two groups on two different sides of the hallways. Does that make sense? So, I never heard anybody actually say, “Hey, I'm incident commander,” or anything like that.
INTERVIEWER:
Did you feel that the chief was the incident commander, or at least the person in charge?
DANIEL CORONADO:
Yes. I mean, as far as the person in charge, yes. If he had told me to do something, yes.
INTERVIEWER:
Did you ever hear Chief Arredondo say, "Hey, I'm the incident commander"?
OFFICER VENTURA CHAPA, Uvalde Police Dept.:
No, sir. He was on the other side of the hallway. He wasn't on my side of the hallway.
INTERVIEWER:
Did anybody in that hallway say, "Hey, I'm the incident commander"?
VENTURA CHAPA:
On my side?
INTERVIEWER:
On your side, the other side. Anybody in that hallway while you guys were in that hallway, if you remember?
VENTURA CHAPA:
I don't remember, but I really don't think—I don't remember anyone ever saying that they were incident commander in the hallway.
NARRATOR:
In the weeks after the shooting, Chief Arredondo told a state legislative committee and The Texas Tribune that he never viewed himself as the officer in charge. He defended his actions and those of the other officers.
INTERVIEWER:
Does what happened seem to follow along the lines of how you guys trained?
OFFICER RUBY GONZALEZ, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District:
I don’t think so.
INTERVIEWER:
What do you think was the big difference?
RUBY GONZALEZ:
All the different agencies that were trying to assist were not used to working together, so each agency has their own SOPs. And we couldn’t find a way to work together, because each agency wanted to do things how they see fit. So I think that’s where we—
INTERVIEWER:
What kind of things are you talking about? Things like coordinating entry?
RUBY GONZALEZ:
Just coordinating it. Setting up the command center. Those are the things that should be done first.
NARRATOR:
The active shooter training for responding officers varied widely, and some hadn't trained in years.
INTERVIEWER:
Do you think training was sufficient leading up to this?
PETE ARREDONDO:
I'm comfortable with the training.
Training is never enough. But we have trained. We don't get to train every month. That'd be great, in a perfect world. You can't afford it because we have a school to take care of and I can't pull everybody out for training. But in the summer, that's what we do, because that's our free time.
DONALD PAGE:
I've had active shooter training . . . And how they train you is: classroom door is open, you go in, clear it, come out. The only part, which we spent maybe a couple of hours on, was a barricaded subject. You come up to a barricaded subject, possible hostage situation, hold, get what you need. If it turns back into an active shooter, then try to breach it. But never have I gone to an active-shooter school training where they literally sit there with the door closed and locked.
NARRATOR:
As the confusion was mounting, Chief Arredondo had been trying to evacuate students from Classroom 109. But the door was locked.
PETE ARREDONDO:
Get one of the school officials out there to give you a master key to the rooms.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Master key?
PETE ARREDONDO:
Master key to the rooms.
As soon as I clear this room, I’m going to verify what’s been vacated, guys, before we do any kind of breaching. Time is on our side right now. We probably have kids in there, but we’ve got to save the lives of the other ones.
UNKNOWN OFFICER [on radio]:
302, multiple shields up. Multiple agencies on scene. BORTAC just arrived.
PETE ARREDONDO:
What is he saying?
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
BORTAC just arrived. Multiple agencies on scene.
PETE ARREDONDO:
OK.
NARRATOR:
Chief Arredondo learns that the Border Patrol tactical unit—BORTAC—has arrived.
PETE ARREDONDO:
We’re waiting for a master key to clear this room. We’re going to get rid of the kids first, before we do any breaching. So tell the guys to calm the f--- down for a minute.
NARRATOR:
But he tells officers to first finish evacuating the wing. In his interview with investigators, he explained his focus on vacating the classrooms.
PETE ARREDONDO:
My first thought is that we need to vacate. We have him contained. And I know this is horrible, I know this is what our training tells us to do, but we have him contained. There's probably going to be some deceased in there, but we don't need any more from out here.
NARRATOR:
Thirty-seven minutes into the standoff, a police dispatcher reaches a student who'd called 911 minutes earlier.
KHLOIE TORRES:
Hello?
911 DISPATCHER:
I’m calling with the police department. Are you OK?
KHLOIE TORRES:
No, there’s a school shooting.
911 DISPATCHER:
Are you with officers, or are you barricaded somewhere?
KHLOIE TORRES:
I’m in classroom, [whispers] what’s the classroom number? 112.
911 DISPATCHER:
112?
KHLOIE TORRES:
112, yes ma’am.
911 DISPATCHER:
What’s your name, ma’am?
KHLOIE TORRES:
Khloie Torres. Please hurry, there’s a lot of dead bodies. Please. I know how to handle these situations. My dad taught me when I was a little girl. Send help. Some of my teachers are still alive, but they’re shot.
911 DISPATCHER:
Someone's going to get to you, Khloie, OK?
KHLOIE TORRES:
Please hurry. I can’t wait.
NARRATOR:
The police dispatcher stays on the phone with Khloie and alerts officers over the radio.
911 DISPATCHER:
We do have a child on the line.
JUSTIN MENDOZA:
Hey, what was that?
911 DISPATCHER:
Child is advising he is in a room full of victims. Full of victims at this moment.
JOSE RODRIGUEZ:
F---. Full of victims. Child called 911. Says the room is full of victims.
MARIANO PARGAS:
What?
JOSE RODRIGUEZ:
The room is full of victims. Child 911, child 911 call.
NARRATOR:
The commander of the Border Patrol’s tactical unit, Paul Guerrero, arrives at the north end of the hall.
AGENT PAUL GUERRERO, United States Border Patrol:
Do we have? If there's, if there’s kids in there saying there's, is he killing people, or is it—Did the subject, no one knows about the kids, or anything else like that?
JUSTIN MENDOZA:
No, there’s kids and teachers in there.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
There’s a student in there talking.
NARRATOR:
The officers tell him the gunman is in a classroom down the hall and that the door is locked.
PAUL GUERRERO [on phone]:
When I walked in and saw all those officers there, officers, agents of every law enforcement, they advised me that the door was locked. As soon as it closes, it’s locked from the inside and you got to have a key or someone from the inside to open it.
NARRATOR:
While officers are looking for keys, a Border Patrol medic arrives after hearing about Khloie’s call.
BORDER PATROL MEDIC:
Anybody hurt?
DENNIS GAZAWAY:
No, not here. No, sir.
JOSE RODRIGUEZ:
Yes, there are.
DENNIS GAZAWAY:
Here?
JOSE RODRIGUEZ:
Yeah.
BORDER PATROL MEDIC:
EMS in there already?
JOSE RODRIGUEZ:
No. No, sir, we have an active shooter.
BORDER PATROL MEDIC:
He’s in here.
DENNIS GAZAWAY:
He's in here.
BORDER PATROL MEDIC:
I’m just going to stand right here, be ready.
JOSE RODRIGUEZ:
The last contact—hey, hold on. Last contact we had was one of our school PD officers, his wife is a teacher. She called and said she’s dying.
BORDER PATROL MEDIC:
They just had her number, a kid in Room 12. A kid in Room 12, multiple victims.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Nine injured.
NARRATOR:
On the south end of the hall, Chief Arredondo, Sgt. Coronado and other officers continue to try to open Room 109.
DANIEL CORONADO:
It’s OK, Chief.
PETE ARREDONDO:
I already checked them all twice.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
Head’s up. Stand by. Do we have a knife? A knife?
DANIEL CORONADO:
I got a knife.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
We can open it with a knife.
DANIEL CORONADO:
Pull on it. Pull on it. No, hold it. Damn it.
PETE ARREDONDO:
Hey, can you go get a breaching tool?
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
We have one.
DANIEL CORONADO:
I know. I know.
NARRATOR:
There are more gunshots—the first in nearly 40 minutes.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
He’s shooting!
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Which way is he shooting?
NARRATOR:
On the other end of the hall, with the BORTAC unit—
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Hey, hold the channel!
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Hold up! Shots fired!
NARRATOR:
Officers move towards Rooms 111 and 112. They stop just outside the doors.
BORDER PATROL MEDIC:
Ah f---. We’re taking too long.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Do we have a key yet? Do we have a master yet?
NARRATOR:
Back at the south end, Chief Arredondo had instructed officers to break into Room 109 from the windows outside.
PETE ARREDONDO:
How about this? How about this, guys? Break this window. Get these kids out.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
Now! Go, buddy. That way. All the way, don't stop. Go, go, go, go, go.
Let me know when there’s zero kids so we can go in.
DONALD PAGE:
We have one shot!
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
One kid?
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
No, we have the teacher in there shot.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
OK, the teacher’s shot in there. She's shot.
NARRATOR:
The teacher was hit by bullets that went through the walls during the initial gunfire.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
We're still taking them out, stand by.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
All clear. All clear.
NARRATOR:
Fifty-three minutes into the standoff, Chief Arredondo confirms the building has been cleared.
PETE ARREDONDO:
Got a team ready to go? Got a team ready to go? Have at it.
LOMI KRIEL:
Chief Arredondo didn't have his radio with him. And there's no evidence from the information we have, the call logs or the body camera footage that he was communicating in any way with the BORTAC commander who was on the other end of the hallway.
So with Chief Arredondo on one side and the BORTAC commander on the other side not communicating with each other, that kind of cohesive response was not happening.
NARRATOR:
Outside the school, as more officers arrived throughout the standoff, it was chaotic, too.
GILBERT VALDEZ:
So he’s still in there?
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Could y’all assist us in finding out whose some of these vehicles are?
NARRATOR:
Police vehicles were parked in the middle of the street, blocking ambulances.
GILBERT VALDEZ:
I’m moving this one back there. Just make sure nobody’s behind me.
He took the keys.
NARRATOR:
Parents and community members tried to get closer to the school.
GILBERT VALDEZ:
We need everybody to get back. Behind the yellow line back there. Let's get everybody back. Get everybody back. Let’s go. Get back.
NARRATOR:
Around an hour into the standoff, officers were still trying to figure out how to get into Classrooms 111 and 112, which they would later learn are connected. They remained focused on finding a key.
PAUL GUERRERO:
There’s master keys here but it's not opening any of these other doors. There's a master key but it's not opening the doors. So we don’t know if it works or not. He's shooting at the door anytime somebody gets close to it.
AGENT AUSTIN BUCHANAN, United States Border Patrol:
So we moved down. We were still trying to figure out how to breach. They were trying to find a master key because we had a Halligan tool, but we didn't have any way to get the tool into the door jamb.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
You got gas?
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
There’s a bunch of gas in this case right here.
TROOPER JOSHUA BORDOVSKY, Dept. of Public Safety [on phone]:
Everyone was just trying to figure out how to, how to get in.
DENNIS GAZAWAY:
My pickup truck, I'm parked right back over there. Bring it over here. In the toolbox, I got a sledgehammer.
UNKNOWN OFFICER:
Toolbox, you got a sledgehammer?
DENNIS GAZAWAY:
Yes.
AUSTIN BUCHANAN:
Eventually—I couldn't tell you the time. Maybe 15, 20 minutes, maybe—somebody finally found the master key. We tried it on the janitor doors that we were—There was a janitor door where we were on either side of the hallway. We tried it on those. It worked.
We were stacked on the hallway leading to the room, just getting ready to make entry.
NARRATOR:
At 12:50, 77 minutes after the gunman entered Robb Elementary, the officers move in on Room 111.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
Let’s get kids. Kids, let's get kids. You OK? Hold your fire! Kids, kids kids!
LOMI KRIEL:
The BORTAC commander, he finally gets the right key from a school employee, puts it in the door, opens the door. The gunman jumps outside of a closet and fires at BORTAC officers at the front of the stack. He grazes one of them in the head. Multiple officers fire back and hit the gunman and kill him.
EMMANUEL ZAMORA:
EMTs! EMTs first! EMTs first!
LOMI KRIEL:
What we later learn and the state committee that examined the response determined is that the door was likely unlocked this entire time.
NARRATOR:
Nineteen students and two teachers were fatally shot in Uvalde, most of them likely during the initial 2 minutes of gunfire before police entered the school.
Two students and a teacher died soon after being rescued, among them Eva Mireles, who had called her husband from her classroom early in the standoff.
Texas has now increased the amount of active-shooter training for all law enforcement in the state.
Of the hundreds of officers who responded that day, several have resigned, been reassigned or retired. At least three have been fired, including Chief Pete Arredondo, who was terminated by the Uvalde school board. His lawyer called the chief a “fall guy” and said that the only person responsible was the shooter himself.
PETE ARREDONDO:
We're going to get scrutinized. I'm expecting that. We're going to get scrutinized about why we didn't go in there. I know what the firepower he had, based on what shells I saw, the holes in the wall in the room next to his. I also know I had students that were around there that weren't in the immediate threat, besides the ones that I know were in the immediate threat, and the preservation of life around everything around him I felt was priority.
DANIEL CORONADO:
It was a horrific thing, and we lost no matter what. I want to learn from it. I want an opportunity to have someone better than me tell me, "Hey, we could have done this or we could have done that." You know what I mean? I want that. But I'm not going to sit here and cover anything up or say, "Hey, I'm human. I can make mistakes, too."
INTERVIEWER:
Oh, for sure.
DANIEL CORONADO:
But again, like I said, I mean, I think everybody tried and did what we could and for what it was. Aside from the fact that you never thought that could happen here in this town. That's definitely—You know, there was a saying that we had before. We'd always say, "Hey, man, it’s not a matter of if, it’s when."
JUSTIN MENDOZA:
I know a lot of our guys are beating themselves up about is there more we could have done, or should we have just, you know, gone in and risked three of us not making it home, just to at least stop this guy. Maybe more kids would’ve made it home.
EDUARDO CANALES:
Maybe, and I just keep thinking, like, I keep thinking in my head different scenarios. What should I have done better, what should I done? And I don’t, I mean—[sighs]
JESUS MENDOZA:
The more we talk, like, it sounds like we f------ didn’t do s---, right?
INTERVIEWER:
Is there anything you wish I would ask you, or anything else that you haven’t already shared?
MICHAEL WALLY:
I just wish someone would have taken charge. I wish someone would have—And I know this is going to be open record one day, and let it be on open record. F--- politics. Someone take charge. Let’s fix this. That’s what I want.
FEMALE VOICE [on phone]:
—— Elementary. This is Monica.
NARRATOR:
On the day of the shooting, shortly after leaving the scene, a Border Patrol agent called his daughters’ school in a nearby town. A body camera he’d picked up was still recording.
AGENT DAVID JOY, United States Border Patrol:
I need, I need to talk to the principal as soon as I possibly can.
MONICA [on phone]:
OK, um. Can I ask what this is in reference to?
DAVID JOY:
I’m a Border Patrol agent. That’s what I do. And I’m out, I’m out of Uvalde Station.
MONICA [on phone]:
OK.
DAVID JOY:
And, I don’t, have you heard anything, or no?
MONICA [on phone]:
Yes, we heard that there was an active shooter, but then that he was in police custody.
DAVID JOY:
Yes, ma’am. That, but, um, there’s some stuff that was extremely, like, I, like, there were some issues that I have with the way things—I want to be able to talk with somebody, just to give you some advice and stuff that kind of slowed us down a little bit that maybe you would be able to—God forbid something, God forbid something happen and y'all aren't, y’all aren’t set up for it.
MONICA [on phone]:
OK, let me send you to—
