No excuse: Uvalde commander had no radio, but other first responders could hear the 911 calls

(Video Credit: CNN)

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez unleashed a jaw-dropping admission about the lack of communications at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where the community is still reeling from the loss of 19 children and 2 adults to an active shooter on May 24.

“I went to the Commission on State Emergency Communications,” Gutierrez told CNN host Kate Bolduan on “At This Hour With Kate Bolduan” on Friday morning. “What I was told specifically is that in this area of Uvalde, those calls are dispatched through Uvalde PD, not the ISD as we were told before. PD dispatchers would then send as many as 17 different, to 17 different first responders, up to and including that school district. They are in the system.”

“That said, I have been told that this person did not have, this person being the incident commander, did not have radio communication,” the democratic state senator said. “And I don’t know as to why. And so those are the things that we do know.”

He continued by outlining what first responders would have been doing during the long period of inactivity where Uvalde Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo had instructed officers to await backup before entering the building.

“We also know that if these other first responders are getting these dispatches, then other cops on the scene are listening to what’s going on. Listening to the 911 calls coming in. And yet there’s this inactivity for over 45 minutes, almost 48 minutes in that hallway,” he said.

Bolduan interrupted Gutierrez to make sure she had understood correctly.

“Two quick questions, Senator,” she said.”So your understanding is that Pete Arredondo did not have a radio on him, did not have any communications?”

Gutierrez confirmed that he had been told that Arredondo was without a radio.

“That is what has been communicated to me,” Gutierrez said.

Bolduan pressed the state senator on what someone in that situation would actually need to know in order to move inside.

“Setting this aside, even if there is a massive communications breakdown, as you seem to be concerned that there may have been, what, do you think that they even needed to have 911 communications to know that they needed to get into that classroom?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” Gutierrez said. “I’ve said from day one that the active shooter protocol should trump everything. I’m not a police expert. I’m just a state senator trying to figure out what’s what, make some sense out of this. Try to make sure it never happens again. I don’t think we, any of us need to be rational people or policemen to understand that active shooter protocol says you go in, you go in immediately.”

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