‘Very angry’: 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 school — at the same time as parents outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked children known as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect decision” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers have been killed within the shooting.

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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. 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 mentioned in the assertion. “There is nothing in the Metropolis Constitution, 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 head police job at the college district.

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

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

One other lady in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her title, said certainly one of her granddaughters was on the faculty throughout the capturing however wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to reply 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 Metropolis Council, Arredondo informed the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he needed to focus not only on town being fiscally accountable but also making sure road repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. All the pieces has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered via the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple 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 academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo instructed more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because kids have been at risk, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because they'd not been licensed to speak publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

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 positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for a neighborhood school district, based on a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-News 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 school district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, instructed the San Antonio Express-Information in a story printed after the Uvalde capturing 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 informed the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a lot of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was concerned in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not current at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

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

“The truth will come out,” said the man earlier than 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 2 days, Considine said.

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

He stated one family told him that a first responder advised them that their youngster, who was shot in the again, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of these children as properly,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated while the difficulty of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the local (college district) cop.”

“On the finish of the day, all people failed right here,” Gutierrez stated.

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Related Press author 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.

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