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

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 outside begged police to hurry in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been positioned 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 favored native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect resolution” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, said on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two teachers 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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a press release 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 City Council,” McLaughlin said in the assertion. “There may be 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 a lot of an almost 30-year profession in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle 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 capturing occurred. “He was a very good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he did not have enough expertise. Who knows? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other lady in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her title, mentioned one in every of her granddaughters was on the college in the course of the shooting however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You join to respond to these sorts of conditions” Torres mentioned. “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 told the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, including he wanted to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but in addition making sure avenue repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. Every part has a solution. That solution starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city police officers entered by way of the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from a number of companies 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 said that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not extra lives had been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of youngsters have been in peril, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they had not been authorized to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin stated 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 city positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which 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 varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo also has 5 different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Express-Information in a story revealed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was concerned about the college students.

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

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

After that news convention, 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 home told a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

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

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department 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 number of questions after “so many things went incorrect.”

He stated one household advised him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot in the again, seemingly bled out. “So, completely, these errors could have led to the passing away of those children as properly,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said whereas the difficulty of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (college district) cop.”

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

___

Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise contributing were Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

___

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