‘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 school — even as dad and mom outside begged police to rush in and panicked children referred to as 911 from inside — has been placed with the school 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 native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, stated at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two academics have been killed in 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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned within the statement. “There's nothing in the City 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 nearly 30-year career 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 youngsters to the identical faculty the place the shooting occurred. “He was boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have enough expertise. Who knows? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her identify, stated one in all her granddaughters was on the school during the shooting however wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with reviews coming out about the response, stated he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You enroll to reply to those kinds of conditions” Torres stated. “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 “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I've loads of concepts, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he wished to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but additionally ensuring avenue repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. Everything has an answer. That solution starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city law enforcement officials entered by way of the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers 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 lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives have been lost because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, law enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters have been at risk, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they had not been licensed to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area faculty district, in line with 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 authorized his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde faculty district’s web site, 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 worked, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned about the students.

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

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

After that information convention, 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 home told 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 Department of Public Security, said Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for two 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 quite a lot of questions after “so many issues went incorrect.”

He said one family told him that a first responder told them that their child, who was shot within the back, doubtless bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those children as properly,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez stated while the issue of which law enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the local (school district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, everybody failed here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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