adding, quote, fuel to the fire. this as russian forces have gained ground in eastern ukraine, leaving a key city on the brink. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. for the first time in a week, we re now hearing from the man who led the widely criticized police response to the texas school massacre. cnn confronting the uvalde school district police chief and pressing hip about his decision not to immediately engage the gunman. listen to cnn s exclusive one-on-one with that police chief, pete arredondo. i want to talk to you about just to let you know, i spoke with them. i know you did. just so you know, obviously, we re not going to release anything. we have people in our community being buried. so we re going to be respectful. i just want your reaction to the direction that you were responsible for the decision to go into that room. how do you explain yourself to pare
arredondo was approved as chief of the uvalde school district police in 2020. according to his professional training file obtained by cnn, pete arredondo completed active shooter training three times. most recently in december 2021. one of those training courses was under the command of ray garner who said arredondo had a high score. i know that we provided that training. i don t know what was running through his mind, why he made that decision, if he made that decision at all. but i can only tell you what i would do. we re going in that room. even with decades of experience and training, was the commander of a six-member police force the right person to lead the response at that critical moment? you have to have experience and knowledge of how to operate a multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency response to this type of critical situation. i do not believe that this individual had the right training or experience to lead
families quit grieving, we ll do that. pete arredondo, a 50-year-old native of uvalde began his law enforcement career nearly 30 years ago, working up from modest positions in the uvalde police department. i started there and worked my way up to the ranks of assistant chief of police. after spending nearly 16 years with the uvalde city police, he moved south to webb county, texas, where among his jobs with the sheriff s department, he worked as a jailer and then he took a job with the united independent school district police in laredo along the border with mexico. we interviewed chief ray garner, his boss there, who told us arredondo was a captain responsible for the safety of 21 schools and had at least 30 officers and 60 security guards under his command. he was well liked by the men and women of this department. and he was good to work with. the principals at the different campuses really liked him, and he communicated well with them.