‘Very offended’: Uvalde locals grapple with faculty chief’s role

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary faculty — even as parents outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong 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 top of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers have been killed in 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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a press release Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin stated within the assertion. “There's nothing within 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 a nearly 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the same school the place the taking pictures happened. “He was boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he did not have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? People are very angry,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her name, stated one in all her granddaughters was on the college throughout the shooting but wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reviews coming out in regards to the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You join to answer those sorts of situations” 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 informed the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I've loads of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he wished to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but also making sure avenue repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I assume to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city cops entered by the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives had been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of children have been in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been authorized to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

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

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

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

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned about the students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down here, we do loads of training on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick news conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not current 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 level, a man answering the door at Arredondo’s house told a reporter for The Related 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 Division of Public Security, stated Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for two days, Considine said.

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

He said one family informed him that a first responder instructed them that their little one, who was shot within the again, probably bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors could have led to the passing away of these kids as properly,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez stated whereas the issue of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press author 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 college shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings