watching this reporting is troubling, so if you have children in the room you might consider having them leave. here is shimon s report. there are probably victims in their, and with the shots i heard deceased. former uvalde s pete arredondo herd for the first time, the day after the may 24th shooting, tempting to explain his actions. a new video it s contained by cnn, arredondo telling investigators he assumed students in the room with the shooter were already dead. so he chose to clear children from surrounding classrooms. we now know he was wrong. at least three victims were pulled out of the room alive, who later died from their injuries. my first thought is that we needed to vacate, we had to have it contained, those we have them contained, there s probably going to be deceased who so i called out and said get
months ago. you are not going to sweep this under the rug. three main failures. number one, school administration. right there. reporter: before yesterday s meeting, arredondo s lawyer released a statement with a request it be read aloud. calling the proceedings an an unconstitutional public lynching and saying that arredondo would not attend the board meeting over safety concerns. so, for him to not be here and actually to face consequences to his actions reporter: arredondo said he did not consider himself in charge during the may 24th shooting, but state officials identified him as the on-scene commander. the gunman was in two adjoined classrooms for more than an hour before officers entered and killed him. that time marked with chaos as
if i can invest in her health and be proactive, i think it s worth it. see the benefits of fresh food at betterforthem.com tonight, the uvalde school board will meet to discuss whether to fire pete arredondo. arredondo, you ll remember, faced heavy criticism for the police response to the may 24th shooting, commander on the scene. that shooting claimed the lives of 19 children and 2 of their teachers. the superintendent said earlier this month that a search for an interim school police chief has already begun. let s bring in democratic texas state representative joe moody. he is the vice chair of the state house s bipartisan investigative committee, formerly served as a prosecutor in the el paso county district attorney s office. thank you very much for being with us this morning. obviously you guys have been doing incredibly difficult but
distractions. air zondo had been criticized for his handling of the robb elementary school shooting in may that left 21 dead. you re having a meeting about a massacre that happened. reporter: community frustration boils over at last week s meeting with arredondo was nowhere to be seen. we re demanding answers. show your face and answer our questions now. reporter: arredondo was elected to the city council just before the shooting but had never attended a meeting. according to state officials, chief arredondo was among the first on scene during the may 24th shooting. but his officers waited in the hallway for over an hour while a gunman was firg inse of the classrooms drawing tough criticism from steve mccraw, the director of the texas department of public safety. the on scene commander who decides to place the lives of officers before the lives of children. last month he was put on
confronting an 18-year-old gunman. we have more on that major development out of uvalde, texas. joining us now, nbc s news correspondent gaud venegas, a lot of developments here and probably a resignation that many expected. reporter: well he had been heavily criticized because of his response to the shooting in may. as his job as police chief, he has been placed on administrative leave by the support who put him on that administrative leave. he had just been elected to the city council before the shooting happened. as you mentioned, he was sworn in and after heavy criticism from the community, we know he is resigning. this morning pete arredondo is off the city council. he wrote in a resignation letter, it is in the best interest of the community to step down to minimize further