‘Very offended’: 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 — whilst parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked kids called 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 well-liked native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong decision” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the taking pictures.

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 an announcement Monday that the assembly 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 said within the assertion. “There's nothing in 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 regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job at the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the same faculty where the capturing happened. “He was a great boy,” she said.

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

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her name, said one of her granddaughters was on the faculty throughout the capturing but wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to respond to these sorts of situations” Torres mentioned. “If you're scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the Metropolis Council, Arredondo instructed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground running.”

“I have loads of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, adding he needed to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is difficult. Every part has an answer. That answer begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis law enforcement officials entered through the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo advised 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 more lives have been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two law enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of youngsters have been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they'd not been licensed to speak publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his career 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, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for an area faculty district, in accordance with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde school district’s web site, 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, told the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned in regards to the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials speaking at information conferences over the following two days, but was not current 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 person answering the door at Arredondo’s home informed a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the man 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 two days, Considine stated.

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

He said one household told him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot within the again, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these errors may have led to the passing away of these children as nicely,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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

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

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