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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — even as dad and mom exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters called 911 from inside — has been placed with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken decision” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Safety, said on the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two academics have been killed within 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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the statement. “There may be nothing in the Metropolis Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year profession in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical college where the shooting happened. “He was a superb boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have enough expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her identify, stated one in every of her granddaughters was on the school in the course of the shooting however wasn’t damage.

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

“You sign up to reply to those 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 Metropolis Council, Arredondo told the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom working.”

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

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I assume to me nothing is sophisticated. All the things has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

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

McCraw stated 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 goes towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because kids were at risk, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because that they had not been licensed to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his career in legislation 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, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for an area faculty district, based on a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “simple to speak 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 training on active-shooter situations, and he was involved in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at information 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 home and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s home instructed a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

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

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine said.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district consists of Uvalde, stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a number of questions after “so many things went flawed.”

He stated one household informed him that a first responder told them that their little one, who was shot within the again, seemingly bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of these youngsters as properly,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said whereas the problem of which regulation enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the local (college district) cop.”

“At the end of the day, all people failed here,” Gutierrez said.

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Related Press author 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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More on the college shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings