Uvalde police chief who delayed officer response to Texas shooting to join City Council

The police chief who reportedly made the call to not instantly send officers into Robb Elementary School to confront a gunman was elected to Uvalde's City Council simply three weeks ago after working on a platform of communication and outreach to the community. 

Peter Arredondo, the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased School District, stopped at the very least 19 officers from breaking into the school because the gunman opened fire for at least an hour.

Arredondo believed that the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were not beneath an energetic menace, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated Friday. 

“From the good thing about hindsight where I’m sitting now, in fact, it was not the correct choice. It was a flawed determination. Period. There was no excuse for that,” McCraw said at a news conference. “There have been loads of officers to do what wanted to be achieved, with one exception, is that the incident commander inside believed he wanted more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at the moment."

According to McCraw, Arredondo believed there was no active risk, so as a substitute of sending officers in, he spent time finding keys that may let him into the school. Throughout this time, however, the shooter had unencumbered access to carry out the assault. Nineteen students and two teachers have been killed.

Arredondo was not current among legislation enforcement officials standing with McCraw on Friday, and McCraw didn't explicitly identify him.

Arredondo didn't instantly return a request for remark by NBC Information.

As the group calls for answers and pieces together a shaky and conflicting timeline of events, scrutiny has turned to Arredondo, who was born and raised in Uvalde. 

After working as the police captain at the United Impartial Faculty District in Laredo, Texas, about 140 miles south of Uvalde, Arredondo returned to his hometown in April 2020, when he accepted the position of chief of police for the Uvalde school district, based on the Uvalde Chief-Information.

The previous chief, Leo Flores, resigned after being arrested on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun in a bar and threatening an officer, the newspaper reported. 

Arredondo instructed the Leader-Information that he was wanting to serve the community, saying he was dedicated to establishing a robust working relationship with the three officers he would be leading. 

“We wish to ensure that we can be found wherever we're needed,” Arredondo told the newspaper.

As Arredondo’s tenure hit two years, his local likability led to a profitable bid for a Metropolis Council seat this month. He beat out three different candidates, garnering nearly 70 p.c of the vote within the May 7 election, reported the Uvalde Chief-Information. 

The chief campaigned, largely door-to-door, on communication and outreach “to those in want,” the newspaper said. 

“I’m very excited, I'm ready to hit the ground running. I've loads of ideas, and I positively have loads of drive,” Arredondo informed the outlet this month.

Arredondo is scheduled to be sworn onto the council on Tuesday, precisely one week after the Uvalde shooting.

Safia Samee Ali is a reporter for NBC Information Digital, based in Chicago.