‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with faculty chief’s function

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

It’s left residents within 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 on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two lecturers were killed within the capturing.

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 stated in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin said within the statement. “There is nothing in the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year career in law 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 children to the identical college the place the capturing happened. “He was a great boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have sufficient experience. Who knows? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t need to give her name, said one of her granddaughters was at the school throughout the taking pictures however wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reviews popping out in regards to the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You join to reply to these sorts of conditions” 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 instructed the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom working.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wanted to focus not solely on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally ensuring avenue repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo said: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. Every part has an answer. That answer begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city police officers entered through the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team 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 whereas Arredondo informed more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which fits in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not more lives were misplaced because officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to let them move in as a result of youngsters were in danger, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been licensed to talk publicly concerning 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 told the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin said in his Monday assertion that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a local faculty district, in line with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Specific-Information in a story revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was concerned about the students.

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

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

After that information conference, 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 Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” mentioned the man earlier than closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.

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

He said one family told him that a first responder told them that their little one, who was shot in the again, likely bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of these children as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned while the difficulty of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the local (college district) cop.”

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

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