‘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 college — even as parents outdoors begged police to hurry in and panicked children known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable choice” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, stated at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers had been 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 said in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. 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 said within the assertion. “There is nothing in the City 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 a virtually 30-year career in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical college the place the shooting happened. “He was a great boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another lady within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her title, mentioned certainly one of her granddaughters was on the school during the taking pictures but wasn’t harm.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with stories popping out concerning the response, stated he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You join to reply to those kinds of conditions” Torres mentioned. “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 instructed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he wished to focus not only on the town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure avenue repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is sophisticated. Every thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered by means of the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether extra lives have been misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

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

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his career 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, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for a local faculty district, in response to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

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

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, told the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned in regards to the students.

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

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

After that news conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s house and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a man answering the door at Arredondo’s house advised 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, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains Uvalde, mentioned 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 advised him that a first responder instructed them that their youngster, who was shot within the back, probably bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of those kids as nicely,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which legislation enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the local (school district) cop.”

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

___

Associated Press author 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.

___

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