‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s role

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary faculty — even as parents exterior begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters referred to as 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken decision” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated on the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers had been killed within the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool right here, was set to be sworn in Tuesday to his new spot on the Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin said in the statement. “There is nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a nearly 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical faculty the place the taking pictures happened. “He was an excellent boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her name, mentioned considered one of her granddaughters was at the college through the shooting however wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with experiences popping out about the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You join to reply to those kinds of situations” Torres mentioned. “In case you are scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the City Council, Arredondo informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he said, adding he wished to focus not solely on the city being fiscally responsible but also making sure street repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered via the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that college students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of kids have been in peril, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been licensed to speak publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his career in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood school district, in line with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde faculty district’s web site, the police force led by Arredondo also has five different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was involved about the college students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down here, we do a whole lot of training on active-shooter eventualities, and he was concerned in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the next two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news convention.

After that information convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s residence and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a man answering the door at Arredondo’s house advised a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” stated the man before closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security, said Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains Uvalde, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking quite a lot of questions after “so many things went incorrect.”

He said one household instructed him that a first responder informed them that their baby, who was shot in the again, seemingly bled out. “So, completely, these errors might have led to the passing away of these kids as effectively,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said whereas the problem of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

“On the finish of the day, all people failed here,” Gutierrez stated.

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Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition contributing were Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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More on the school capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings