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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary faculty — even as dad and mom exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable resolution” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, said on the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two academics have been killed in 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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly 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 stated in the assertion. “There may be nothing in the City 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 an almost 30-year career in legislation 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 college where the capturing happened. “He was an excellent boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have enough expertise. Who knows? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her identify, mentioned considered one of her granddaughters was on the faculty during the capturing however wasn’t damage.

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

“You sign up to answer those 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 informed the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he mentioned, adding he needed to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but also making sure avenue repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. All the pieces has an answer. That solution starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

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

McCraw mentioned that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo informed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not extra lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because kids were in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they'd not been authorized to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the reality concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area college district, based on a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde school 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 labored, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned in regards to the students.

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

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

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

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

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

He stated one family informed him that a first responder told them that their youngster, who was shot in the back, probably bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes might have led to the passing away of those children as nicely,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which legislation enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the local (school district) cop.”

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

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

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