‘Very offended’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s function

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — at the same time as dad and mom outdoors begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters known as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the school 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 said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable decision” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated at the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers had been killed within the taking pictures.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school 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 an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. 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 stated within the statement. “There may be nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a virtually 30-year career in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job at the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the same school the place the capturing occurred. “He was a good boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who knows? People are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t need to give her identify, stated considered one of her granddaughters was on the school throughout the shooting however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You join to reply to these sorts 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 told the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he wished to focus not only on town being fiscally responsible but in addition making sure street repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. Everything has an answer. That solution starts with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city police officers entered via the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

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

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

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth about the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for an area faculty district, based on a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees accredited his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police force led by Arredondo also has five other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, advised the San Antonio Express-Information in a narrative printed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was involved about the students.

“He was an excellent officer down here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a number of coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in these.”

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

After that information conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s home and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a man 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, said Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.

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

He stated one family informed him that a first responder told them that their child, who was shot within the again, doubtless bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of these kids as properly,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which regulation enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing had 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 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings