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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary faculty — even as parents outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been positioned with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within 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 “incorrect decision” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, mentioned on 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 lecturers have been killed within 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a press release Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately 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 mentioned in the assertion. “There's nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a virtually 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 identical faculty the place the capturing occurred. “He was a great boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have enough expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her name, mentioned considered one of her granddaughters was on the college in the course of the taking pictures but wasn’t hurt.

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

“You join to answer these sorts of conditions” Torres mentioned. “If you're 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 Chief-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I positively have loads of drive,” he stated, adding he wished to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but also making sure avenue repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is difficult. Everything has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city police officers entered via the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, 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 whereas Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which goes towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives have been lost because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to let them move in as a result of youngsters were in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they'd not been approved to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality concerning the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his career in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a local faculty district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde college district’s website, the police force led by Arredondo also has 5 other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, informed the San Antonio Specific-Information in a story published after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was involved concerning the college students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner instructed the newspaper . “Down here, we do loads of coaching on active-shooter situations, 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 speaking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not current at McCraw’s Friday news 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 house advised a reporter for The Associated 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 Division of Public Safety, stated Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.

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

He stated one household instructed him that a first responder informed them that their little one, who was shot in the back, probably bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez mentioned while the issue of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

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

___

Related Press writer 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.

___

Extra on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings