‘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 college — even as dad and mom outside 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 native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper choice” 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 head of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers have been 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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin said within the statement. “There's 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 a nearly 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the same faculty the place the taking pictures happened. “He was boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez said.

One other lady within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her identify, mentioned one of her granddaughters was at the college throughout the capturing but wasn’t hurt.

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

“You enroll to answer these kinds of conditions” Torres stated. “In case you are scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the City Council, Arredondo instructed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground working.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I positively have loads of drive,” he stated, including he wanted to focus not only on the city being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. Every thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

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

McCraw stated that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which works towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act faster.

Two regulation enforcement officers have mentioned that as the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters had been at risk, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because that they had not been authorized to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about 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 located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a local college district, in keeping with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees accepted his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different officers and a security guard.

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

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

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials talking at information conferences over the next two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

“The truth will come out,” stated the person before closing the door.

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

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains 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 unsuitable.”

He stated one household instructed him that a first responder told them that their child, who was shot in the again, likely bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated while the difficulty of which regulation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Associated 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.

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