‘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 — whilst parents outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked children called 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 local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken choice” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated on the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two academics had been killed within the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool here, was set to be sworn in Tuesday to his new spot on the Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the assembly 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 City Council,” McLaughlin stated in the statement. “There's 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 an almost 30-year career in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the school district.

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

“He dropped the ball perhaps as a result of he didn't have enough experience. Who knows? Individuals are very offended,” Gonzalez stated.

One other girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her identify, stated one among her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the capturing however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You sign up to reply to these sorts of conditions” Torres said. “If 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-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom operating.”

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

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. Everything has a solution. That answer begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city police officers entered by way of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives were lost because officers didn’t act sooner.

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

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday assertion that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a neighborhood faculty district, in response to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde college district’s website, the police force led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, informed the San Antonio Express-News in a story published after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was involved in regards to the students.

“He was a wonderful officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a lot of training on active-shooter eventualities, and he was involved in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the person earlier than 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 mentioned.

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

He mentioned one household instructed him that a first responder instructed them that their youngster, who was shot within the again, seemingly bled out. “So, completely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those kids as properly,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which legislation enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

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

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