‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s role

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — even as mother and father outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked kids referred to as 911 from inside — has been placed 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 well-liked local lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “flawed determination” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department 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 kids and two teachers had been killed within the taking pictures.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool 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 stated in a press release 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 said within the statement. “There may be nothing in the Metropolis Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of an almost 30-year career 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 same faculty the place the shooting happened. “He was a good boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he did not have sufficient expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez said.

One other girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her identify, said one in every of her granddaughters was on the college through the shooting however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You join to answer these kinds of situations” 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 advised the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom working.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he stated, including he needed to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but in addition making sure avenue repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

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

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis cops entered by means of the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which goes in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives were lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officers have mentioned that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different companies 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 had not been licensed to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started 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, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for an area school district, according to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde college district’s web site, 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, advised the San Antonio Express-Information in a story published after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned about the students.

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

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

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

“The truth will come out,” said the person earlier than closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Safety, said Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine said.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking loads of questions after “so many issues went flawed.”

He said one household instructed him that a first responder instructed them that their youngster, who was shot in the back, likely bled out. “So, completely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those youngsters as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned while the issue of which legislation enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (college district) cop.”

“At the end of the day, all people failed here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing were 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