‘Very offended’: 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 school — at the same time as mother and father outdoors begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters referred to as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the varsity 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 stated that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “flawed determination” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two lecturers were killed within the taking pictures.

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 stated in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately 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 mentioned in the assertion. “There is 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 a lot of a nearly 30-year profession in legislation 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 children to the identical college where the capturing occurred. “He was boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have enough expertise. Who knows? Individuals are very angry,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t want to give her title, mentioned considered one of her granddaughters was on the school during the capturing but wasn’t harm.

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

“You join to answer those kinds 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 City Council, Arredondo instructed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground working.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wished to focus not only on town being fiscally responsible but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

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

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city police officers entered by the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives have been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officers have mentioned that as the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of kids have been at risk, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of that they had not been licensed to speak publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. 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 Workplace after which for a local faculty district, based on a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde college 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 labored, instructed the San Antonio Express-Information 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 about the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the next two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news 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 home 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 Safety, stated Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine stated.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district consists of Uvalde, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking lots of questions after “so many things went improper.”

He mentioned one household informed him that a first responder informed them that their child, who was shot in the again, seemingly bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez stated.

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

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

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Related Press author 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 capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings