‘Very indignant’: Uvalde locals grapple with faculty 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 parents exterior begged police to rush 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 mentioned that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong resolution” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, stated on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two lecturers were killed within the capturing.

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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin stated within the statement. “There's nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot 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 identical faculty the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez said.

Another girl in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her name, stated one in all her granddaughters was on the school through the capturing but wasn’t harm.

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

“You join to respond to those sorts of situations” Torres mentioned. “If 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-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground running.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he needed to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but additionally ensuring road repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. Every thing has an answer. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis cops entered by the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff 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 while Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives were lost because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have mentioned that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of kids had been in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been licensed to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

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 metropolis located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a neighborhood school district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde school district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo additionally has five different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, told the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved concerning the college students.

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

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

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

“The truth will come out,” said the person earlier than closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division 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, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking numerous questions after “so many issues went fallacious.”

He mentioned one household instructed him that a first responder informed them that their child, who was shot within the again, possible bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors could have led to the passing away of those children as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, everyone failed right here,” Gutierrez said.

___

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.

___

More on the college taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings