- The police chief of the Uvalde, Texas, school district initially told the public there were "some deaths" in the wake of the school shooting.
- Authorities alleged that Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo made a "wrong" call during the massacre.
- Arredondo delayed cops from breaching the classroom where the gunman carried out the rampage, an official said.
The chief of police of the Uvalde, Texas, school district initially told the public there were "some deaths" in the wake of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Now a top Texas law enforcement official says that that same person — Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo — was the on-scene commander during Tuesday's massacre who authorities said wrongly made the call to delay authorities from breaching the classroom where the gunman carried out the deadliest US school shooting in a decade.
During a less than two-minute press conference in the aftermath of the rampage, Arredondo took no questions, but did say, "I can confirm right now that we have several injuries, adults and students, and we do have some deaths."
Arredondo explained that the gunman was "deceased" and believed to have acted alone.
At a second brief press conference later that day, Arredondo again took no questions from the media and provided little information about the massacre.
Over the next few days, Texas law enforcement have provided muddled and sometimes contradictory statements, and have changed their story of the circumstances around the mass shooting at least 12 times.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said on Friday that Arredondo was the on-scene commander during the rampage who made the decision to classify the bloodshed at the school as a "barricaded subject" situation even as students inside the classroom with the gunman called 911, begging for help.
"The on-scene commander at that time believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject," McCraw said.
McCraw added, "He was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children."
"From the benefit of hindsight, where I'm sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period," McCraw — who was not present at the shooting — said.
More than an hour elapsed from the time the 18-year-old gunman with an AR-15 rifle entered Robb Elementary School to when a US Border Patrol tactical team shot and killed him.
"Obviously based upon the information we have [now], there were children in that classroom that were at risk and it was in fact still an active shooter situation and not a barricaded subject," McCraw said.
It remains unclear as to why Arredondo allegedly made the decision not to breach the locked classroom with the team of 19 officers that were in the hallway of the school building.
Arredondo has been notably absent from other news briefings on the Robb Elementary School shooting held this week, including Friday's.