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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — whilst mother and father exterior begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters referred to as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored local lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect resolution” final week to not 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, mentioned on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers had been killed in the capturing.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool 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 mentioned in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the assertion. “There is nothing within the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of an almost 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the identical school the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was a superb boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he didn't have sufficient expertise. Who knows? People are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another woman within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her identify, said considered one of her granddaughters was on the college throughout the taking pictures but wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with experiences coming out in regards to the response, stated he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You enroll to reply to these sorts of situations” 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 City Council, Arredondo instructed the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, adding he needed to focus not only on town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure avenue repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. All the things has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis law enforcement officials entered through the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether extra lives had been lost because officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to let them move in as a result of youngsters were at risk, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been approved to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in regulation 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, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for an area college district, in keeping with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees accepted his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde school district’s website, the police force led by Arredondo additionally has five other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was involved about the college students.

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

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

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the man before 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 two days, Considine stated.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains Uvalde, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a variety of questions after “so many issues went flawed.”

He stated one family told him that a first responder informed them that their child, who was shot within the again, probably bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes might have led to the passing away of these youngsters as effectively,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the local (college district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, everyone failed here,” Gutierrez said.

___

Associated Press author 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 college shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings