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The Uvalde, Texas police department and the local school district police have reportedly stopped cooperating with state Department of Safety investigators into the massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school and the law enforcement response that has angered locals and public officials.
The Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police force stopped cooperating Friday following a press conference in which Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the delayed police response to the mass shooting was “the wrong decision.”
Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief, has not responded to Texas Rangers in two days for a follow-up interview from his initial statements following the shooting, a DPS spokesperson told Fox News in a statement.
“The Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde CISD Police have been cooperating with investigators,” the statement said. “The chief of the Uvalde CISD Police provided an initial interview but has not responded to a request for a followup interview with the Texas Rangers that was made two days ago.”
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Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw speaks during a press conference held outside Robb Elementary School on Friday, which he said nearly 20 officers stood in a hallway outside of the classrooms during the attack on a Texas elementary school for more than 45 minutes before agents used a master key to open a door and confront a gunman, authorities said Friday.
(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Arredondo made the decision to not immediately confront suspected shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, at Robb Elementary School during his rampage last week. Authorities waited in a school hallway for nearly 50 minutes before breaching a classroom door.
McCraw said that Arredondo thought the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, and that they had time to wait for tactical equipment and keys to unlock the classroom’s door.
The police response as well as the flow of inaccurate information by law enforcement in the days after have generated criticism from parents of the victims as well as officials who had praised authorities immediately afterward.
Lt. Gov. Patrick told Fox News on Saturday that law enforcement’s choice not to immediately confront the shooter was a “bad decision, and that decision cost lives.”
“No one mentioned the fact that there was this 45 minute-to-an-hour hold by the chief of the police of the school district while there were still shots being fired,” Patrick said.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said local police did not mislead anyone.
Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, third from left, stands during a news conference outside of the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The local police and school district police have reportedly stopped cooperating with state investigators into the mass shooting and a review into the police response.
(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
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“Local law enforcement has not made any public comments about the specifics of the investigation into the incident or [misled] anyone,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to Fox News Digital on Monday.
“Statements by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick that he was ‘not told the truth’ are not true. All statements and comments made to date about the ongoing investigation are being handled by DPS/Texas Rangers.”
Fox News’ Paul Best and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
