‘Very offended’: 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 — even as parents outside 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 within 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 “mistaken determination” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, mentioned on the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two lecturers were 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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin said within the statement. “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 an almost 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job at the school district.

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

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have enough experience. Who is aware of? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez stated.

Another lady in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her name, mentioned one among her granddaughters was on the college during the taking pictures however wasn’t damage.

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

“You join to respond to these sorts of situations” Torres mentioned. “In case 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 “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I've loads of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, including he wanted to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. Every little thing has a solution. That answer begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew 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 help 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 had been lost because officers didn’t act faster.

Two legislation enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of youngsters have been in danger, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been approved to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth about the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his profession 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, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a neighborhood faculty district, in keeping with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police pressure led by Arredondo also has 5 other officers and a security guard.

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

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

After that information conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s home and police cruisers took up posts there. At one level, a man answering the door at Arredondo’s house told a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the man earlier than 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 2 days, Considine mentioned.

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

He said one family told him that a first responder informed them that their youngster, who was shot within the back, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors could have led to the passing away of these youngsters as properly,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which regulation enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, everyone failed right here,” Gutierrez stated.

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise contributing were Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings