‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s role

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

It’s left residents within the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College 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 youngsters and two academics 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin said within the statement. “There may be nothing within the City 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 career in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical college the place the shooting occurred. “He was a very good boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he did not have sufficient expertise. Who knows? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez said.

Another woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her identify, stated one among her granddaughters was on the faculty through the shooting however wasn’t harm.

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

“You join to answer these sorts of conditions” 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 informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I have loads of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he said, adding he wanted to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring road repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. All the pieces has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis police officers entered by the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that college students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives were misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officials have stated that because the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters have been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they had not been approved to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood college district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different 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 revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned about the college students.

“He was a wonderful officer down here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down here, we do numerous coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the next two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

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

“The reality will come out,” mentioned the person before 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 mentioned.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a variety of questions after “so many things went unsuitable.”

He said one household told him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot in the again, possible bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors may have led to the passing away of these children as well,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the problem of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (college district) cop.”

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

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Related Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise contributing have 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 varsity shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings