minutes to tick by before police killed the gunman. acting uvalde police chief mariano pargas was one of the first to enter robb element on may 24th. the chief of the uvalde police was on vacation which left pargas in charge of the city police. pargas arrived at 11:36 a.m., just three minutes after the gunman fired his first shots. his officers run in ahead of him and make an attempt to breach the classroom. they quickly retreat when shots are fired in their direction. cnns that chosen to mute the sound of those gunshots. am i bleeding? am i bleeding? reporter: minutes later uvalde police officer ruben ruiz whose wife is a teacher at robb elementary delivers critical information to pargas. the shooter is located inside his wife s classroom.
most basic responsibility. the authors writing, they failed to prioritize saving the lives of victims over their own safety. several officers in the hallway or in that building knew or should have known there was dying in that classroom. and they should have done more, acted with urgency. reporter: family members were hoping for more than a verbal dressing down. but what they re saying we already knew it. they were powered. reporter: some action was taken right away. the city s mayor announcing right before this meeting that the acting chief of uvalde police department, mary owno pargas on leave. any offer who did learn about 911 phone calls coming in from rooms 111 and 112 including pargas was shifting to an active shooter response. there is windows into heroism. students being pulled out of the building and this heartbreaking
report about the response to the school shooting. let s listen in. this is the mayor of uvalde don mclaughlin. the city has a responsibility to evaluate the response to the incident by the uvalde police department, which includes the role as acting chief. his administrative leave is to investigate whether or not the lieutenant was responsible for taking command on may the 24th, what specific actions lieutenant pargas took to establish that command, and whether it was even given all the agencies involved and other possible policy violations. next, we agree with the committee s review of the incident that there was a failure of command all around. we have further questions as to who was responsible for taking command as each agency there has
senior level commanders on site. we want to know what specific agencies took specific actions to take command and where did the critical breakdown occur. the city of uvalde will be conducting an internal investigation regarding our police department s actions and our policies and procedures. i have told you this would happen since day one. we are currently waiting on dps to release the uvalde police department officers official statements taken immediately after the incident. these are critical to our own internal investigation. the city has selected jesse prato, an expert in the field to conduct the internal investigation. as soon as dps releases these reports, as we have requested, mr. prato will begin his review and assessment. that will also include a specific review of lieutenant pargas acting as acting chief of police that day. as mayor of uvalde, the city only had to place lieutenant