‘Very indignant’: 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 college — even as dad and mom exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked kids called 911 from inside — has been positioned 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 popular native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper decision” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated at the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two academics were killed within 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately 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 in the assertion. “There is nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year career in law 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 youngsters to the identical faculty where the taking pictures happened. “He was an excellent boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he did not have sufficient experience. Who knows? People are very angry,” Gonzalez stated.

Another woman in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her title, stated one in every of her granddaughters was on the faculty through the capturing but wasn’t harm.

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

“You enroll to reply to those kinds of conditions” Torres mentioned. “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 informed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I've loads of concepts, and I positively have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he wanted to focus not solely on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition making sure avenue repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. All the things has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city law enforcement officials entered via the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo informed 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 quicker.

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

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his profession in law 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, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for a local college district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school 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 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 Categorical-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was concerned in regards to the college students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down here, we do lots of coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in these.”

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

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the person earlier than 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 two days, Considine stated.

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 variety of questions after “so many things went incorrect.”

He mentioned one family informed him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot within the back, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of these kids as well,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which legislation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “instructed” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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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 varsity taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings