UVALDE, Texas — Testimony continues Monday on the Robb Elementary school shooting, as members of a special Texas House committee are in Uvalde working to get answers.
It was last week when the Uvalde Police Department got on board with the House committee's investigation. The city's police chief Daniel Rodriguez was among those who testified behind closed doors today.
The three-person committee noted it took a bit longer than expected for Uvalde PD to cooperate with the house's investigation of the shooting.
Scheduled to testify on Monday were Rodriguez, Uvalde PD Sgt. Daniel Coronado, and Uvalde CISD officer Adrian Gonzalez. Later in the day, Natalie Salazar was added as a witness. She is the aunt of the gunman.
While Chief Rodriguez took questions before the committee, Pete Arredondo, head of the Uvalde CISD police force, has not testified as part of the committee's probe. For weeks, Arredondo has faced criticism for his handling of law enforcement's response to the shooting that left 19 kids and 2 teachers dead.
Police were in the school's hallway for over an hour before they moved in and took down the gunman. A recent report from the Express News states that officers did not attempt to open the door to the classrooms during that time, and the doors could not have been locked from the inside.
RELATED: Uvalde police never tried to open doors to classrooms where shooter was inside, report says
Brett Cross lost his nephew 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia in the tragedy. He's vowed to hold a protest every weekend until there's true accountability and Arredondo steps down.
"Every single person there failed us. There were agencies fighting the parents and pushing them back and everything. The parents weren't cowards, the parents were trying to go in there. Why didn't the police that have the training, have the equipment? Because I know every single parent would have died trying to save children, and not even just their children."
"Who waits 77 minutes outside? who does that? Because I guarantee if it was their children, they would've ran in," he said. "They failed our kids, they failed our city, they failed our community."
Cross plans on going to tonight's school board meeting. There's also the city council meeting tomorrow, where Arredondo may be granted a leave of absence. He said that he has already tried to petition to remove Arredondo from city council, but can't do that until he has been in office for 8 months per the city charter.
State Rep. Dustin Burrows says the committee is still trying to reach Arredondo for an interview. He also said this isn’t necessarily the last time the committee will hold hearings in Uvalde.
The House committee will reconvene on Tuesday in Austin.