‘Very angry’: 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 school — even as parents exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked children known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis 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 “unsuitable resolution” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated at the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers were 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, but Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that the meeting 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 said within the assertion. “There's nothing within the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of an almost 30-year profession in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical school the place the capturing occurred. “He was a very good boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have sufficient experience. Who knows? Individuals are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

One other lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t need to give her title, said one in all her granddaughters was at the school in the course of the shooting however wasn’t harm.

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

“You join to answer these sorts of situations” Torres stated. “If you're scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the City Council, Arredondo informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground working.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he wanted to focus not solely on the town being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring road repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. Everything has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city police officers entered through the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff 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 while Arredondo instructed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which works in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives were misplaced because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officials have mentioned that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of children had been at risk, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been licensed to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his career in legislation 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 at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a local school district, in response to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees accepted his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police power led by Arredondo also has 5 different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a story printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to talk to” and was concerned in regards to the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick news conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news convention.

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 truth will come out,” mentioned the person earlier than closing the door.

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

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 a lot of questions after “so many things went wrong.”

He stated one family told him that a first responder told them that their youngster, who was shot within the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of those youngsters as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the problem of which legislation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (school district) cop.”

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

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