‘Very offended’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s function

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

It’s left residents within the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken decision” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers have 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned within the statement. “There's nothing within 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 nearly 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the same faculty the place the shooting happened. “He was a very good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other girl within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her name, said one in all her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the shooting but wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reviews coming out in regards to the response, stated he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You join to respond to those sorts of situations” 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 Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I've loads of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he stated, adding he wanted to focus not only on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally ensuring street repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I assume to me nothing is difficult. Every little thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis police officers entered via the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which fits in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives were lost because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of kids have been in peril, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they had not been licensed to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

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

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

In keeping with the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police drive 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 worked, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a story revealed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned about the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

After that information conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s residence and police cruisers took up posts there. At one level, a man answering the door at Arredondo’s home instructed a reporter for The Associated 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 Safety, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine stated.

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

He mentioned one family informed him that a first responder advised them that their little one, who was shot within the back, probably bled out. “So, completely, these errors could have led to the passing away of these children as nicely,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned while the difficulty of which regulation enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also 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 taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings