“No Uvalde police officers saw the shooter on May 24 before he entered the school,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “No Uvalde police officer had a chance to shoot the gunman.” The gunman eventually killed 19 young students and two teachers inside a classroom before authorities finally breached the classroom more than an hour later. The pain surrounding the tragedy has been compounded by finger-pointing and blame-shifting by the various agencies investigating the school shooting — one of the deadliest in US history — and its aftermath. On Friday, the chairman of the Texas House Investigative Committee looking into the shooting, Dustin Burrows, tweeted that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) had denied a committee request to include in its report a 77-minute video of the hallway outside of the school classroom before it was breached. Burrows said DPS invoked the objection of Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell-Busbee to release the video. The video does not show the victims or the shooting, according to Burrows. CNN has reached out to Mitchell-Busbee for comment. “DPS believes the video has the potential to bring clarity to the public regarding the tragic events at Uvalde,” DPS said in its response to the request.
“We do not believe that its public release would harm our investigative efforts. In fact, releasing this video would help us provide as much transparency to the public as possible without interfering with the investigation in the way that immediate public release of all of evidence will .” But the agency said Mitchell-Busby “objected to the release of the video and instructed us not to.” “As the person empowered to consider whether criminal charges should result from the events at Uvalde, we are guided by her professional judgment regarding the potential impact of the release of the video,” DPS said.

The report cites fatal missed opportunities and mistakes

This week’s report from the active shooter and assault training center at Texas State University cited a number of deadly missed opportunities and mistakes in the response, including two unlocked school doors and a lack of effective command. Pete Blair, executive director of ALERRT, defended the report in a statement, saying the source for every item in its timeline is clearly seen in the document. Blair said the information about the officer who possibly shot the gunman was based on the officer’s statements to DPS. Citing the report, Blair added: “Ultimately, the decision to use deadly force always rests with the officer who will use the force. If the officer was not sure he could hit both his target and his setting if he missed , they should not have shot.” McLaughlin said an Uvalde officer saw someone outside “but was not sure who he saw and also observed children in the area.” “After all, it was a coach with kids on the playground, not the shooter,” the mayor said. McLaughlin said that, contrary to the DPS report and timeline, troopers were at the school door about three minutes after the gunman entered and dozens more at the time of the breach. Blair said the mayor’s statements about DPS troopers “may be accurate” but “not relevant to our review.” The mayor called the “premature release of piecemeal information” about the investigation a “disservice” to the victims’ families and promised to release all city records once the reviews are complete. The ALERRT assessment, released Wednesday, was created using school video, third-party video, body cameras, radio logs, oral testimony from officers and statements from investigators. ALERRT said the document should not be taken as a “definitive or final report as not all research options have been exhausted”. In a statement, Texas Lt. Gen. Dan Patrick said the report corroborates earlier testimony by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw and added that the assessment was “very difficult for me to read.” There will also be reports from the FBI, the Texas Rangers and the District Attorney in the “coming weeks and months,” Patrick said.

Arredondo requested a city council permit

Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district’s police chief, asked the Uvalde City Council for temporary leave to “focus on addressing school issues related to the tragedy” about two weeks before he resigned, according to a copy of the email request that he did with the city, which CNN obtained through a request for information. Arredondo resigned from his city council seat on July 2 after the city council voted unanimously to deny his permit request and missed two consecutive city council meetings. “This request is made in an effort to reduce any unnecessary interruptions during board meetings to address agenda items. This temporary(or) infrequent leave will allow me the opportunity to focus on addressing school related matters with the tragedy that occurred in our community on May 24,” Arredondo wrote in the email, dated June 21. At the time Arredondo emailed the leave request, he planned to continue serving in his position, the document shows. CNN’s Rosa Flores, Rosalina Nieves and Christina Maxouris contributed to this report.