‘Very indignant’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s position

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — at the same time as mother and father exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters referred to as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong resolution” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t at risk.

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

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school right 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 mentioned in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin mentioned within the statement. “There may be nothing in the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a virtually 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the same school where the taking pictures occurred. “He was a superb boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball possibly as a result of he didn't have enough expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her identify, mentioned one of her granddaughters was on the school during the taking pictures but wasn’t harm.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with stories popping out concerning the response, stated he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You enroll to reply to those kinds of conditions” Torres mentioned. “If 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 told the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground running.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he said, adding he wanted to focus not solely on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally ensuring road repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. The whole lot has an answer. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city law enforcement officials entered via the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce 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 whereas Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives were lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officers have mentioned that as the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because children have been in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because that they had not been authorized to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his career in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a local school district, according to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has five other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Express-News in a story revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned about the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two brief information conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the next two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

“The reality will come out,” said the person before closing the door.

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

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, mentioned 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 stated one household instructed him that a first responder told them that their little one, who was shot within the back, seemingly bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of these youngsters as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the issue of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

“At the end of the day, everybody failed here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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

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