‘Very indignant’: 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 college — even as mother and father exterior begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed 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 well-liked native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “flawed decision” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, stated on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two academics were killed within the capturing.

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 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin stated in the statement. “There may be nothing within the Metropolis Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a virtually 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the faculty district.

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

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

One other lady within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t want to give her identify, said considered one of her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the capturing however wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with reports coming out in regards to the response, said he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You sign up to respond 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 ground running.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he said, adding he wanted to focus not solely on town being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring avenue repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. Every thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city cops entered by means of the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two regulation enforcement officers have said that because the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters have been in peril, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of that they had not been authorized to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his career in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a local college district, based on a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has five other officers and a security guard.

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

“He was an excellent officer down here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down right here, we do plenty of training on active-shooter eventualities, and he was involved in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the following two days, but was not current 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 person answering the door at Arredondo’s home told a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” mentioned the person before closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Security, said 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 lots of questions after “so many things went unsuitable.”

He mentioned one household told him that a first responder informed them that their little one, who was shot within the back, seemingly bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those youngsters as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned while the issue of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to 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 local (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise contributing had 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 capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings