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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters referred to as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect determination” 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 Department of Public Security, mentioned on 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 in the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school here, was set to be sworn in Tuesday to his new spot on the City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a press release Monday that the meeting 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the assertion. “There is nothing in 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 profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the identical college where the shooting occurred. “He was a good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have enough expertise. Who is aware of? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another woman within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t need to give her name, said one in every of her granddaughters was at the school in the course of the capturing but wasn’t hurt.

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

“You join to reply to 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 City Council, Arredondo advised the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he said, adding he wished to focus not only on town being fiscally accountable but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

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

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city law enforcement officials entered through the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, 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 students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo informed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which goes in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives were misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at college students, law enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because children had been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because that they had not been approved to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis situated 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, in response to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Specific-News in a story printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was involved concerning the college students.

“He was a superb officer down here,” Garner instructed the newspaper . “Down here, we do lots of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was concerned in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief information conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the next two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

After that information conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s home and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s house informed a reporter for The Associated 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, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for two days, Considine said.

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

He stated one household instructed him that a first responder informed them that their baby, who was shot in the back, probably bled out. “So, completely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those youngsters as properly,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which legislation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition contributing had 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 college shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings