‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school 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 parents outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school 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 on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious choice” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two academics had been killed within the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school right 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 stated in a statement Monday that the meeting 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned within the statement. “There is nothing within the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

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

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

“He dropped the ball maybe because he did not have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her name, said certainly one of her granddaughters was at the college through the shooting however wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with reviews popping out concerning the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You enroll to reply to these sorts of situations” Torres said. “If 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 “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he stated, including he needed to focus not solely on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure avenue repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. The whole lot has a solution. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

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

McCraw mentioned that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which goes in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at college students, law enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of children were in peril, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because that they had not been approved to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the reality concerning the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

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

In line with the Uvalde faculty district’s web site, the police force 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, told the San Antonio Specific-News in a story revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was concerned in regards to the college students.

“He was an excellent officer down here,” Garner instructed the newspaper . “Down here, we do plenty of coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was involved in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials talking at information conferences over the following two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the person before closing the door.

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

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

He said one household told him that a first responder instructed them that their baby, who was shot within the again, probably bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors may have led to the passing away of these children as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez stated whereas the issue of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (college district) cop.”

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

___

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

___

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