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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as dad and mom outside begged police to hurry in and panicked kids referred to as 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 well-liked native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper resolution” last 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 Division of Public Security, stated on 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 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, but Mayor Don McLaughlin stated 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the assertion. “There is nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure 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 pinnacle police job at the school district.

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

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he did not have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her name, mentioned one of her granddaughters was on the college through the taking pictures however wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to reply to these kinds of conditions” Torres mentioned. “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 Metropolis Council, Arredondo informed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he said, including he wished to focus not solely on town being fiscally accountable but also ensuring avenue repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. The whole lot has an answer. That solution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered by the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew 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 help while Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives had been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officers have stated that as the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of youngsters were at risk, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been licensed to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back 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 said in his Monday assertion that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his profession 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, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area school district, in keeping with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde college district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo also has five different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Specific-Information in a story published after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned in regards to the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the next two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

After that news conference, 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 house informed a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” stated 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 two days, Considine said.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district consists of Uvalde, stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking numerous questions after “so many issues went wrong.”

He said one family informed him that a first responder told them that their baby, who was shot within the back, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these errors could have led to the passing away of these youngsters as well,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez stated whereas the difficulty of which regulation enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

“On the finish of the day, everybody failed right here,” Gutierrez stated.

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Related Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also 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 college taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings