‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s position

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — at the same time as dad and mom 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 stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable determination” final 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 Division of Public Safety, said on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two teachers were killed in 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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. 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 mentioned in the assertion. “There's nothing within the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 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 kids to the identical school where the capturing happened. “He was a superb boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have enough expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

One other lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t need to give her identify, stated one in all her granddaughters was on the school through the taking pictures however wasn’t hurt.

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

“You join to answer those sorts of situations” 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 Chief-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom operating.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he mentioned, adding he needed to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. The whole lot has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city law enforcement officials entered via the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which fits in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not more lives had been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because kids had been in danger, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been authorized to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

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 Workplace and then for a neighborhood faculty district, in response to a 2020 article within 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.

In response to the Uvalde college district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, told the San Antonio Express-Information in a story revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned about the college students.

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

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

After that information conference, 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 home instructed a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” mentioned the man 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 said.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district consists of Uvalde, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a lot of questions after “so many issues went mistaken.”

He stated one household advised him that a first responder advised them that their little one, who was shot within the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those kids as well,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said while the issue of which legislation enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition contributing have been Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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