‘Very indignant’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s position

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as mother and father outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters called 911 from inside — has been placed with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis 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 choice” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed within the taking pictures.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool right here, was set to be sworn in Tuesday to his new spot on the City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not 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 a lot of a virtually 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job on the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical faculty where the shooting happened. “He was a superb boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez stated.

Another lady within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t need to give her title, stated one in every of her granddaughters was on the school throughout the taking pictures but wasn’t hurt.

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

“You enroll to reply to these sorts of conditions” Torres mentioned. “If you're 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-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

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

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

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis law enforcement officials entered via the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which works towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives were lost because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have said that as the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because children have been in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his career 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, where he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area school district, according to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has five different officers and a safety guard.

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

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down here, we do lots of training on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

After that information convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s residence and police cruisers took up posts there. At one level, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s house advised a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” said the man earlier than closing the door.

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

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

He stated one household informed him that a first responder advised them that their youngster, who was shot within the back, possible bled out. “So, completely, these errors could have led to the passing away of those kids as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated while the issue of which legislation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the local (college district) cop.”

“At the end of the day, everyone failed here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also 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 taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings