The Uvalde Police Dept. and the Uvalde Independent School District police are no longer cooperating with the Texas Dept. of Public Safety’s (DPS) investigation into last week’s mass shooting during which an 18-year old who bought two AR-15 style assault weapons and over 1000 rounds of ammunition killed 21 people and wounded 17 others.
Citing multiple law enforcement sources, ABC News reports both the city’s police dept. and the school district’s police force decided to stop cooperating “soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was ‘the wrong decision’ and contrary to protocol.”
ABC adds that the “Uvalde police chief and a spokesperson for the Uvalde Independent School District did not immediately respond” to requests for comment.
The news comes on the heels of new information from an attorney for the teacher who allegedly, according to McCraw, had left a door propped open. That door, video footage shows, had been closed, the lawyer says, Insider reports, citing a San Antonio Express-News report.
“Since last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde — the country’s deadliest at an elementary school since Sandy Hook in 2012 — law enforcement officials have made crucial changes to the attack’s timeline at least a dozen times.”
UPDATE: 5:59 PM ET –
“The chief of the Uvalde school district police department, Pete Arredondo, has not responded to the Texas Rangers in two days for a followup interview from his initial statement immediately after the mass shooting, a spokesman for Texas DPS confirms,” Austin-American Statesman’s Tony Plohetski reports.