Arredondo told the Texas Tribune's James Barragan and Zach Despart that he dropped his police and campus radios outside the school seconds after arriving at the northeast entrance of Robb Elementary, stating that he believed the tools would slow him down while responding to the shooter. Arredondo said that one of the radios had a "whiplike antenna" that would hit his side as he ran. Another he claimed was likely to fall off his tactical belt.
"My mind was to get there as fast as possible, eliminate any threats, and protect students and staff," Arredondo told the Tribune.
The chief pinned the blame for the 77-minute span between his arrival at the school and the elimination of Ramos primarily on officers' inability to find the correct key to the door of the classroom in which the shooter had locked himself. Over the course of the attack, he says he was given two different key rings to try.
"Each time I tried a key I was just praying," Arredondo said. However, few elements of Arredondo's version of events at Robb Elementary that day have been confirmed by other officers and personnel in the hallway with him.