Exclusive CNN: officer investigated by Uvalde’s response gave the order to delay entry into classrooms

Uvalde School District Superintendent Retires 1:59 (CNN) — A Texas State Police captain tried to delay a law enforcement team from entering classrooms to end the Elementary School massacre. Robb and is now among those under investigation following an account from someone on the scene that he ordered his officers to stay out of the school in the initial response to the shooting, sources tell CNN.

CNN has obtained a new audio recording of Capt. Joel Betancourt ordering a strike team to wait, more than 70 minutes after the attack. Betancourt says that he thought a more capable team was on the way. Separately, police memos highlight criticism of Betancourt, a 15-year veteran of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Memos written just two days after the May 24 massacre and reviewed by CNN detail some of DPS’s involvement in law enforcement’s hesitant but chaotic response to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. No action was taken against the attacker, or to help those trapped with him for 77 minutes, apart from a first approach that was aborted when he started firing. Nineteen children and two teachers lost their lives in the massacre. “I heard someone yell, Capt. Betancourt said all DPS personnel have to be on the perimeter, not go into the building,” a DPS lieutenant stated, after writing how he had driven from about 40 miles away at speeds up to 200 km/h to reach the scene. A DPS sergeant added in his note: “Since this was clearly against established training, we both decided to enter the building where the attacker was located.” DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw told CNN, “Yes, absolutely,” when asked if Betancourt was under investigation for telling officers not to enter the hallway. “The IG is looking into that,” McCraw said during an impromptu interview before a meeting last month. Betancourt was interviewed multiple times immediately after the event and has since become one of seven current and former DPS officers referred for further investigation by the DPS inspector general, CNN has learned from sources close to the events. they are not authorized to speak to the media. Joel Betancourt. The officer told investigators that he arrived at Robb Elementary School around 12:45 pm, a few minutes before the teen assailant was killed, sources said. “Hello, I am Captain Betancourt of the DPS. The team that is going to break in needs to be on standby. The team that is going to enter has to be prepared,” he ordered at 12:48 p.m. on May 24, as heard on the audio of a police radio broadcast captured by the body cameras of several officers. In the course of the investigation, Betancourt told investigators he had no first-hand knowledge of what was going on, including that a specialized Border Patrol tactical unit, BORTAC, was engaging the shooter, according to sources familiar with the investigation. . Betancourt said he ordered the team to stand by because he thought a more advanced unit was on the way, the sources said. The officer told officers that no one responded or followed his order, the sources said. The memos reviewed by CNN and the audio offer evidence that contradicts the official DPS narrative that its officers were never in control or issuing substantive orders. DPS Director McCraw has repeatedly criticized then-school district police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo for directing the “abject failure” of the response. Arredondo has said that he did not see himself as the incident commander. CNN left messages for Betancourt by phone, email and text, but he has not responded. Betancourt remains on active duty with DPS. DPS declined to comment on this story. Dogs give comfort to children returning to classes in Uvalde after shooting 1:23 Two officers have reported the initial response to the shooting in which they were told not to enter the school. The officers did not say in their notes when they received that message. Betancourt told investigators he remembers telling DPS officers to stay out and form a perimeter, but says that was after he arrived and was told by Uvalde Sheriff Ruben Nolasco that there were too many people inside, according to sources. Nolasco has not responded to CNN requests for comment. The names of the DPS agents investigated have not been released. Betancourt’s involvement has been confirmed to CNN by McCraw and other sources. Another of the seven, Crimson Elizondo, left DPS to work in the Uvalde school district this summer and was fired after CNN revealed what she said and did on the day of the massacre. First alerted to the Betancourt shooting, the highest-ranking officer known to be under investigation for the botched law enforcement response told investigators he had little to do with the operation at Robb Elementary School until after. that the shooter was killed, sources close to the investigation told CNN. The interviews in the days immediately following the event, described to CNN by various sources, offer the first direct testimony of the agents who are now being examined by the inspector general. Betancourt told investigators that he had a clear memory of being in Eagle Pass, Texas, with other officers when the first call of a shooting was received around 11:50 a.m., he said, but it was not clear how important it was. the situation. When the details became known, they left, Betancourt driving alone the 60 miles to Uvalde and stopping for gas, he said. Betancourt told agents that he did not have a body camera or a driving camera recording him, according to the sources. He said he spoke with Nolasco, the Uvalde sheriff, on the phone while he was driving and that he heard a gunman was barricaded in the school with “an AK47,” the sources said. Betancourt told investigators that he arrived around 12:45 pm and that he first assumed Nolasco was the commander on the scene, since he was there outside of the school. Later, when he saw school district police chief Arredondo inside after the gunman was shot and spoke to him, he told investigators he then thought Arredondo was in charge. Arredondo was fired by the Uvalde school board in August, and has argued that he should be reinstated. Betancourt was asked if he had talked to anyone about why he didn’t go into classrooms and he said he hadn’t, sources told CNN, recalling only that he had talked about negotiating with him. aggressor. The officer told investigators he issued the “stand by” order based on information from Nolasco and thinking there was a better SWAT team on the way to the school, sources said. After the teen shooter was killed by the BORTAC team, Betancourt said he focused on clearing the crime scene and setting up a command post. He told investigators that he used FaceTime to show his superiors the status of the school after the massacre, the sources familiar with the interviews said. In a follow-up interview, he said he didn’t know there were children in the building until after the break-in, he told CNN. Betancourt’s first messages about the attack At least two officers said it was Betancourt who tipped them off to the ongoing attack at Robb Elementary School, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. A sergeant said he had received a text message about an “active shooting” incident from Betancourt around 11:37 am, raising questions about Betancourt’s claim that he only got involved later. Why do they ask the students to wear red after the Uvalde massacre? 2:09 am And Victor Escalon, the DPS regional director for the South Texas region that includes Uvalde, said Betancourt had texted him at 12:09 pm. That text read: “Initial information of a person, possibly a teacher, with a shot in the head, an officer wounded by a bullet, the boy has an AK 47, the CNU [equipo negociador especializado] has been activated, the suspect is barricaded. Police officers who are doctors have been deployed. The drone team is on its way,” the sources said. McCraw and other DPS officials have declined to discuss the internal investigations or release information until the investigations are complete at the request of local prosecutor Christina Mitchell Busbee. Their criminal investigation it can go on for years, and she has said she will charge anyone who has committed a crime at Robb Elementary School, including law enforcement officers.CNN is part of a coalition of news organizations that have sued DPS over records related to the investigation, including the radio broadcasts and body camera recordings mentioned in this story, which have been withheld from the media and the public.