Captain Joel Betancourt of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) remains on the job after he was heard on a newly published audio recording directing a team responding to the Uvalde school massacre to “stand by.”
On the recording, published by CNN Thursday, Betancourt told officers to wait, more than 70 minutes into the gunman’s attack at Robb Elementary School. The recording is the latest revelation of police response to the May 24 mass school shooting, which has been angrily denounced by community members and is under multiple investigations. Unlike other officers who lost their jobs in the fallout, Betancourt remains on active duty, CNN reported.
A 15-year veteran of the department, Betancourt said on the recording that he delayed the team from entering the classroom because he thought a more highly skilled group of police were on their way to the scene, according to CNN.
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“Hey, this is DPS Captain Betancourt. The team that’s going to make breach needs to stand by. The team that’s gonna breach needs to stand by,” Betancourt said in the recording, at 12:48 p.m. May 24.
Betancourt made the order using a police radio that was captured on multiple officers’ body-worn cameras, reported CNN. Memos from other DPS officers obtained by the news outlet describe being told to hold back by Betancourt. One DPS lieutenant wrote that he drove nearly 40 miles at speeds reaching 130 mph to respond to the shooting.
The massacre was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, killing 19 students and two educators. Almost immediately afterward, police faced swift backlash for their response, which was criticized as tepid and disorganized.
Community outrage was reignited over the summer after the release of surveillance footage from Robb Elementary showing police checking their phone and waiting in the hallway as the shooting unfolded.
Pete Arredondo was fired as chief of the school’s police force by the Uvalde School District board in August. The district announced this month that it was suspending its entire police force for an unspecified period.
DPS Director Steven McCraw in July told staff in an email, obtained by WOAI-TV, that the law enforcement response to the shooting was an “abject failure.”
“Every agency that responded that day shares in this failure, including DPS,” McCraw said in the email.
The police response in Uvalde is under investigation by DPS and a legislative committee. McCraw told CNN that Betancourt is also under review regarding his directives to officers.
Newsweek has reached out to DPS for comment.
