Uvalde's school district police chief said he intentionally left his radios behind when responding to the mass shooting because he thought they would slow him down

Insider ^ | 6/10/22 | Matthew Loh

[Libloather]

Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo, one of the first responders to last month's elementary school massacre, said he intentionally left his two radios behind when he ran into the building to try and stop the gunman, making it impossible for him to be in contact with most of the other officers on the scene throughout the entire situation.

In a phone interview with the Texas Tribune, Arredondo said he left two radios outside the school because he believed they would have slowed him down and that every second mattered.

One radio had a clip that may have fallen off his tactical belt, while another had an antenna that would have hit him as he ran, he told the Tribune.

However, the radios would have connected him to the campus and police networks, according to the outlet.

Arredondo said he also wanted both hands free to hold his gun so he could fire it more accurately.

Arredondo added that based on his prior experience, the radios didn't work well in some of the school buildings anyway, and that he would have turned them off in the hallways to avoid being detected by the gunman.

Still, Arredondo's admission raises questions as to how the hour-long ordeal might have been different if he'd been able to receive real-time information via radio.

[TexasGator]

“Many schools have become dead zones for data connections because they don’t want kids playing on their phones.”

You are full of conspiracies!

[Savage Rider]

Have you tried getting online at a school lately? In our district, visitors can only log on through a district website. If you try to use cell data, it does not work. Also, many websites are blocked from the district website log on. So, call it a conspiracy if you wish, but it hinders First Responders in their communications.

[TexasGator]

“If you try to use cell data, it does not work.”

Why not?

” Also, many websites are blocked from the district website log on.”

Same wherever I worked.

[Savage Rider]

I am not in charge of the school’s technology, so I don’t know if it is some kind of blocker, or if the building is built like a bomb shelter and cell data can’t get in.