‘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 school — even as dad and mom exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked children known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the varsity 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 native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “flawed choice” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, said on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two lecturers had been killed in the capturing.

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 stated in a press release Monday that the meeting 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 mentioned within the statement. “There is nothing within 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 virtually 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the faculty district.

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

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

Another girl within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her title, said considered one of her granddaughters was at the faculty through the capturing but wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reports popping out in regards to the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You join to answer these kinds of situations” 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 advised the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he said, including he wished to focus not solely on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification projects happen.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. Every thing has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis cops entered through the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives have been lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because youngsters have been in peril, The officers spoke on situation 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 officials’ claims, together with 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 statement that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his career in regulation 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 worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for a local college district, in response to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde college district’s website, the police force led by Arredondo also has 5 other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, advised the San Antonio Express-Information in a story revealed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved concerning the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials talking at information conferences over the following two days, but was not current at McCraw’s Friday news 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 man answering the door at Arredondo’s house advised a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” stated 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 stated.

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 lots of questions after “so many issues went improper.”

He mentioned one family advised him that a first responder advised them that their baby, who was shot within the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those kids as nicely,” Gutierrez stated.

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

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

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