‘Very offended’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s role

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as mother and father outdoors begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters known as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college 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 on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, mentioned on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two academics have been killed within the capturing.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool here, was set to be sworn in Tuesday to his new spot on the City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a press release 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 stated in the statement. “There may be nothing within the Metropolis 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 an almost 30-year career in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the same college where the shooting occurred. “He was a good boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who is aware of? People are very offended,” Gonzalez stated.

One other girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t need to give her identify, stated one among her granddaughters was on the college in the course of the shooting however wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with studies popping out concerning the response, said he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You sign up to reply to these sorts of conditions” Torres said. “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 Metropolis Council, Arredondo told the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground running.”

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

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. Every thing has an answer. That answer starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis law enforcement officials entered through the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives have been lost because officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of children had been at risk, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they had not been authorized to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the reality in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for an area college district, based on a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees accepted his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde school district’s website, 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 the place Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Express-News in a story printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved in regards to the college students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down here, we do a variety of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was involved in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the person earlier than closing the door.

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

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains Uvalde, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking lots of questions after “so many issues went flawed.”

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

Gutierrez said whereas the difficulty of which law enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (school district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, everybody failed here,” Gutierrez said.

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

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