‘Very indignant’: 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 — at the same time as parents exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked kids 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 favored native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, mentioned at the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two academics had been killed within the shooting.

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 mentioned in a press release Monday that the assembly 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 stated in the assertion. “There may be nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a virtually 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical college the place the capturing happened. “He was a very good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Individuals are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her identify, said one in every of her granddaughters was at the college during the capturing however wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to answer 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 instructed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom working.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I positively have loads of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wished to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but also ensuring street repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo stated: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. Every little thing has a solution. That solution starts with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by way of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives have been lost because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because youngsters had been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, together with remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his career in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. 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 Workplace and then for a neighborhood school district, in accordance with a 2020 article within 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 authorized his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo also has 5 different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, advised the San Antonio Specific-News in a story revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was involved in regards to the students.

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

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

After that information convention, 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 house advised 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, stated 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 a number of questions after “so many things went fallacious.”

He stated one household informed him that a first responder advised them that their little one, who was shot in the back, probably bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of these youngsters as well,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said whereas the difficulty of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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