Peter Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, completed an eight-hour “Active Shooter Training Mandate” course on December 17, 2021.
According to NBC News, Arredondo is the police chief who waited to confront the shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. He completed an active shooter training course in December, according to law enforcement records.
Officials reported that Arredondo, who has been the police chief since 2020, prevented at least 19 officers from entering the school while the 18-year-old shooter opened fire for at least an hour, killing 19 students and two teachers.
“It was the wrong decision,” Head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, said at a news conference Friday.
According to the documents, as reported by NBC News, Arredondo completed the same course on August 25, 2020.
According to McCraw, Arredondo believed that the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were no longer in danger, NBC News reports.
The active shooter training program explicitly instructs participants on how to “compare and contrast an active shooter incident with a hostage or barricade crisis.”
According to McCraw, instead of sending in officers, he spent time searching for the keys to the school.
Senior federal law enforcement officials told NBC News on May 27 that local law enforcement initially instructed federal agents not to enter the school. However, after a quarter of an hour, they decided to disregard this counsel and search for the shooter.
The Dallas Express recently reported that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District purchased a social-media-monitoring service before the deadly attack on Robb Elementary School on May 26. According to the Dallas Morning News, the efforts had mixed results.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the First Lady Jill Biden will visit Uvalde, The Dallas Express reports.