Uvalde school district police chief dodges CNN reporter's questions on when victims' families will get answers

While on the scene in Uvalde, Texas, a CNN's Shimon Prokupecz got a chance to question Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police chief Pete Arredondo, asking him about reports that say he's now refusing to cooperate with the state's investigation into the police response to the elementary school shooting which killed 19 students and two teachers.

During the exchange, Arredondo told Prokupecz that "we're obviously not going to release anything, we have people in our community being buried."

Prokupecz then asked Arredondo about accusations from his own department that say he was responsible for the police delay in breaching the classroom to eliminate the shooter, to which he replied that more information would be released "when the families stop grieving." Arredondo went on to claim that he's "been on the phone with" Texas Rangers "every day," and denied reports that he's stopped cooperating with the investigation.

RELATED: Expert slams Uvalde cops for putting out nonstop false information

Arredondo then left the interview and was scurried into a building, refusing to answer any more questions.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Uvalde school district police chief dodges reporter's questions www.youtube.com

While mass shootings draw anguished attention and spur momentary demands for change, gun regulation faces deep resistance from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats.

Biden on Monday vowed to "continue to push" for reform, saying, "I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it."

Some key lawmakers have also voiced cautious optimism and a bipartisan group of lawmakers worked through the weekend to pursue possible areas of compromise.

They reportedly were focusing on laws to raise the age for gun purchases or to allow police to remove guns from people deemed at risk -- but not on an outright ban on high-powered rifles like the weapon used in both Uvalde and Buffalo, New York.

With the country still reeling over the Uvalde massacre -- the deadliest school attack since 20 children and six staff were killed in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 -- US media reported the country was hit by a dozen more mass shootings over the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

The United States generally counts mass shootings as involving four or more deaths.

At least 132 gun deaths and 329 injuries were recorded nationwide from Saturday to Monday evening, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

Mourners in Uvalde -- a mostly Latino town of 15,000 -- have echoed calls for change.

"At the end of the day, if this child cannot even sip a glass of wine because he's too young, then guess what? He's too young to purchase a firearm," said Pamela Ellis, who traveled from Houston to pay her respects.

(With additional reporting from AFP)