‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s function

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

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect determination” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

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 lecturers were killed within the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool 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 stated in a statement Monday that the meeting 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 in the assertion. “There is nothing within the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a virtually 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the identical faculty where the taking pictures happened. “He was a great boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have sufficient expertise. Who knows? Individuals are very offended,” Gonzalez stated.

Another woman within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her name, said one in every of her granddaughters was on the college throughout the taking pictures however wasn’t harm.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with stories coming out about the response, said he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You enroll to answer those kinds of conditions” Torres mentioned. “If you're 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 “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he said, including he wished to focus not solely on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. All the things has a solution. That answer starts with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered by means of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of children were at risk, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been licensed to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday assertion that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for an area faculty district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde college district’s website, 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 where Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was involved in regards to the students.

“He was an excellent officer down here,” Garner instructed the newspaper . “Down here, we do quite a lot of coaching on active-shooter eventualities, and he was concerned in these.”

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

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the man 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, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a number of questions after “so many things went improper.”

He said one family informed him that a first responder advised them that their baby, who was shot in the again, likely bled out. “So, completely, these errors might have led to the passing away of these youngsters as well,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which law enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (college district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, all people failed here,” Gutierrez said.

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise 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 school taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings