- Police officers were told not to enter the Uvalde, Texas elementary school during a mass shooting.
- The police chief believed the gunman was barricaded in a room alone.
- A police officer told People there was almost a "munity" over the order.
A police officer with the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District said there was almost a "mutiny" as officers outside Robbs Elementary School almost ignored orders not to enter the school, People reported.
The unnamed officer told the outlet that while Pete Arredondo, the department's chief believed that the shooter was barricaded in an empty classroom, there was still no excuse to order police not to enter.
"There was almost a mutiny," the officer told People. "We were like, 'There's a f—ing gunman in the school, we hear gunshots, and we're just going to stand here with our thumbs up our asses?' We wanted to go in and save lives. It was the most frustrating situation of my entire career."
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 21 people, including 19 children at the elementary school. Those killed were in adjourned fourth grade classrooms where the gunman barricaded himself.
Officials have given several conflicting accounts of what happened during the mass shooting. Officials initially said officers responded to the scene "within minutes," but didn't specify how long it took for police to engage with the shooter.
Parents outside the school have since said police did not respond when they urged them to enter the school and some said they tried to push through law enforcement to rescue their kids.
The officer told People that officers waiting outside felt like "cowards."
"It felt cowardly to stand off and let this punk, this kid, this 18-year-old asshole just go in and do whatever he wanted to do. There was a lot of arguing, a lot of cussing, a lot of people who were saying that we should just say f--- it and go in, but then what? We needed to have a plan, and the commander didn't have a plan," he said.
He questioned why they weren't allowed to go in even if the gunman was alone in a classroom and said he remembers thinking "this is wrong."
"It sucks that we look like we were cowards, because we weren't cowards," he said. "But that's nothing compared to the fact that little kids died and maybe we could've done something to save them. I wish we had known what to do. I wish someone had told us what to do."
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