‘Very offended’: Uvalde locals grapple with college 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 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 in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable resolution” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, 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 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 mentioned in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin said within the statement. “There's nothing within the City 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 a nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical faculty the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he didn't have sufficient expertise. Who knows? Individuals are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another lady within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her name, stated one in all her granddaughters was on the school in the course of the capturing but wasn’t harm.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with experiences popping out about the response, said he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You enroll to reply to those sorts of situations” Torres said. “If you're scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the City Council, Arredondo advised the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wished to focus not solely on town being fiscally accountable but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo stated: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. Every part has an answer. That answer begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw mentioned 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 businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team 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 whereas Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives had been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two law enforcement officers have mentioned that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because kids had been in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because that they had not been licensed to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his career in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. 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 Office and then for an area faculty district, in response to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde college district’s website, 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 the place Arredondo worked, informed the San Antonio Express-Information in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved concerning the students.

“He was a wonderful officer down right here,” Garner instructed the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a whole lot of coaching on active-shooter eventualities, and he was involved in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the following two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

After that information conference, 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 told a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The truth will come out,” stated the person earlier than closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security, stated Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 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 number of questions after “so many things went wrong.”

He said one household told him that a first responder instructed them that their little one, who was shot in the back, possible bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes might have led to the passing away of these kids as well,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the problem of which law enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (college district) cop.”

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

___

Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing had been Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

___

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