‘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 faculty — even as dad and mom outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been positioned with the school 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 on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper determination” last 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 head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, said on the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers were killed in 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, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin said in the assertion. “There may be nothing within the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a virtually 30-year career in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the school district.

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

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

One other lady within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her name, said certainly one of her granddaughters was on the college during the taking pictures however wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to reply to those kinds of situations” Torres stated. “If 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 advised the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground running.”

“I have loads of concepts, and I positively have loads of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wanted to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but additionally making sure avenue repairs and beautification projects happen.

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

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

McCraw mentioned that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not more lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officers have stated that as the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because children had been in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been approved to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his career in law 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, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for an area faculty district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police force led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Express-Information in a narrative published after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was involved in regards to the college students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down here, we do lots of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was concerned in those.”

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

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

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

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

He stated one household advised him that a first responder instructed them that their little one, who was shot within the back, possible bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those youngsters as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said whereas the difficulty of which law enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

“On the finish of the day, everybody failed here,” Gutierrez said.

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Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition contributing were Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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