‘Very angry’: 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 — even as mother and father exterior 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 in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious determination” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle 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 teachers were killed within the taking pictures.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school 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 mentioned in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

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

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of an almost 30-year career in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical school the place the capturing happened. “He was a great boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he did not have sufficient experience. Who knows? People are very angry,” Gonzalez stated.

Another lady within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t want to give her title, mentioned one in all her granddaughters was on the faculty in the course of the shooting but wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with stories coming out concerning the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You sign up to answer these kinds of situations” Torres said. “If you are scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the Metropolis Council, Arredondo advised the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I have loads of concepts, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he said, including he needed to focus not only on the town being fiscally accountable but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is difficult. All the things has a solution. That solution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city law enforcement officials entered via the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives were lost because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officials have stated that because the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of kids have been in peril, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they'd not been approved to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for an area college district, in accordance with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, informed the San Antonio Express-Information in a narrative published after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned about the college students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a number of coaching on active-shooter eventualities, and he was involved 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, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

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

“The truth will come out,” said the man before closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security, mentioned 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 quite a lot of questions after “so many issues went wrong.”

He said one household told him that a first responder advised them that their little one, who was shot in the back, possible bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those children as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Related Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing had been Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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Extra on the varsity capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings