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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary faculty — at the same time as dad and mom exterior begged police to rush in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college 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 “mistaken determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers had been killed within the shooting.

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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether 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's nothing within the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a virtually 30-year profession in regulation 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 kids to the identical faculty the place the taking pictures happened. “He was a good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he did not have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other lady in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t need to give her identify, said one of her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the taking pictures however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You sign up to respond to these sorts of conditions” Torres stated. “If you're scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the Metropolis Council, Arredondo advised the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom working.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he wanted to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but in addition making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. The whole lot has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis police officers entered through the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team 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 informed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of youngsters were in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they'd not been approved to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality concerning the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood college district, in accordance with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has five 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-News in a story revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned in regards to the students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down here, we do a variety of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was concerned in those.”

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

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

“The reality will come out,” mentioned the man 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 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 loads of questions after “so many issues went incorrect.”

He mentioned one family advised him that a first responder informed them that their child, who was shot within the again, seemingly bled out. “So, completely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those youngsters as properly,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned while the problem of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (college district) cop.”

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

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Related Press author 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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Extra on the school taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings