‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s role

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — at the same time as mother and father outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked kids referred to as 911 from inside — has been placed 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 popular local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong resolution” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers have been killed in the shooting.

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 an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly 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 in the assertion. “There is nothing within the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a nearly 30-year career in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the same college the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was a great boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he didn't have sufficient expertise. Who knows? People are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

Another woman in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her title, stated one in all her granddaughters was at the college through the capturing however wasn’t damage.

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

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

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the City Council, Arredondo told the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, including he needed to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but in addition making sure street repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo said: “I guess to me nothing is difficult. All the things has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city cops entered by way of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two law enforcement officials have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to let them move in because youngsters have been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been approved to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to 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 metropolis situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for an area faculty district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police force led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a security guard.

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

“He was a superb officer down here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a number of coaching on active-shooter eventualities, and he was involved in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials speaking at news conferences over the following two days, however was not present 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 home informed a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

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

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

He mentioned one household advised him that a first responder told them that their youngster, who was shot in the back, doubtless bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors could have led to the passing away of these kids as properly,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned while the difficulty of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition contributing were 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 taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings