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

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

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

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers have been killed within the taking pictures.

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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

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

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of an almost 30-year profession in law 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 kids to the identical faculty the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was a very good boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps as a result of he did not have enough expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

Another 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 one in every of her granddaughters was on the school in the course of the shooting but wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to answer those kinds of conditions” Torres stated. “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 advised the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground working.”

“I have loads of concepts, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, including he wished to focus not solely on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. Every little thing has a solution. That answer starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city law enforcement officials entered by the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group 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 help while Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives were lost because officers didn’t act faster.

Two regulation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of kids were at risk, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because that they had not been approved to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality about the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood faculty district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde school district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a safety guard.

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

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

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

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the person before 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 2 days, Considine stated.

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

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

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational control is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press writer 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 taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings