‘Very indignant’: 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 faculty — whilst mother and father exterior begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters known as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious determination” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, mentioned at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two teachers were killed in the capturing.

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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin mentioned within the assertion. “There is 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 profession in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the same school where the taking pictures occurred. “He was a great boy,” she stated.

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

Another woman in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t need to give her name, stated one in every of her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the capturing however wasn’t damage.

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

“You join to respond to those sorts 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 informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground operating.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he wished to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but also ensuring avenue repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has an answer. That solution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by means of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo advised greater 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 because officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because kids had been at risk, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of that they had not been authorized to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his profession in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for an area school district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In line with the Uvalde college district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, told the San Antonio Specific-News in a story printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned concerning the students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down here, we do a whole lot of coaching on active-shooter eventualities, and he was concerned in these.”

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

After that information convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s dwelling and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, 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,” stated the person before closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine mentioned.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains Uvalde, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking plenty of questions after “so many issues went wrong.”

He mentioned one family instructed him that a first responder instructed them that their baby, who was shot within the back, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of these children as well,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “instructed” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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