‘Very angry’: 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 college — at the same time as mother and father exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular local lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable determination” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two lecturers had been killed in the shooting.

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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin stated within the assertion. “There may be nothing in 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 an almost 30-year profession in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the same college the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was a superb boy,” she said.

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

Another girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t need to give her title, stated certainly one of her granddaughters was on the college in the course of the shooting however wasn’t damage.

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

“You join to answer those sorts of conditions” Torres said. “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 instructed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom operating.”

“I've loads of ideas, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he wanted to focus not solely on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition making sure street repairs and beautification projects happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. Every thing has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered by way of the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple companies 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 mentioned that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives were misplaced because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, law enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because children were at risk, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been licensed to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the reality in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

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

According to the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo also has 5 different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned about the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

After that news conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s house and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, 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,” mentioned the man earlier than closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for two 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 numerous questions after “so many issues went improper.”

He said one family advised him that a first responder informed them that their youngster, who was shot in the back, possible bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of these children as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the problem of which law enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “instructed” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition 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