‘Very angry’: 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 school — even as mother and father exterior begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters referred to as 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 favored native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper decision” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, said at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two teachers were killed in the taking pictures.

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 mentioned in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin stated in the assertion. “There may be nothing in 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 a nearly 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job at the school district.

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

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

One other lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t need to give her identify, stated one in every of her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the capturing but wasn’t harm.

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

“You sign up to respond to these kinds of situations” Torres said. “In case 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 ground working.”

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

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo stated: “I suppose to me nothing is sophisticated. Every thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city police officers entered by the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from multiple companies arrived on the scene. Finally, 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 teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo informed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not extra lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two regulation enforcement officials have mentioned that as the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because children had been in peril, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of that they had not been approved to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth about the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in law 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 after which for a local school district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde faculty district’s web site, the police pressure 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, told the San Antonio Specific-News in a story revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned concerning the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the following two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the man 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 stated.

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 whole lot of questions after “so many issues went flawed.”

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

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, everyone failed right here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing have been 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 capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings