‘Very indignant’: 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 school — even as mother and father outside begged police to rush in and panicked kids referred to as 911 from inside — has been placed with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

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

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers were killed in the capturing.

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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

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

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

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

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have enough expertise. Who knows? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

Another girl in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her title, mentioned one in every of her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the capturing but wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with stories popping out in regards to the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You sign up to answer these sorts of conditions” 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 Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground working.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he stated, adding he needed to focus not only on the city being fiscally accountable but also ensuring road repairs and beautification projects happen.

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

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city law enforcement officials entered through the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that college students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo informed more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives have been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because kids had been in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they'd not been licensed to talk publicly in regards to 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 informed the reality concerning the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

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

In response to the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Specific-Information in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was involved concerning the college students.

“He was a wonderful officer down right here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down here, we do numerous training 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 taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the man earlier than 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 said.

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

He stated one family told him that a first responder told them that their youngster, who was shot in the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the problem of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the local (school district) cop.”

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

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Related Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing have 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 varsity capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings