‘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 — whilst mother and father exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked children known as 911 from inside — has been placed 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 local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated at the Friday news convention 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 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. 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 in the statement. “There may be nothing in the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year profession in law 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 children to the identical school where the taking pictures happened. “He was a very good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t want to give her identify, mentioned considered one of her granddaughters was on the school through the capturing however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You enroll to respond to those sorts of conditions” 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 Metropolis Council, Arredondo instructed the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he said, adding he needed to focus not only on town being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. The whole lot has an answer. That solution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city police officers entered by the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo instructed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether extra lives were misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because youngsters have been in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they'd not been authorized to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in law 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, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for a local college district, in response to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees accredited his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde school district’s website, the police force 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 labored, informed the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a story printed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was concerned about the students.

“He was a wonderful officer down here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a lot of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was involved in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick news conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the next two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the person before 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 said.

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

He mentioned one household instructed him that a first responder instructed them that their youngster, who was shot within the back, likely bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes might have led to the passing away of these youngsters as nicely,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the issue of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “instructed” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, everyone failed right here,” Gutierrez said.

___

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

___

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