‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with faculty chief’s function

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — at the same time as mother and father outside begged police to rush in and panicked kids referred to as 911 from inside — has been positioned 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 favored native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper decision” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two academics have been killed in the taking pictures.

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 mentioned in a press release 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 City Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the statement. “There's nothing in the City Charter, 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 legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical faculty the place the taking pictures happened. “He was a superb boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball perhaps as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who is aware of? People are very angry,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her title, said one in every of her granddaughters was at the faculty during the shooting however wasn’t damage.

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

“You join to reply to those kinds 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 City Council, Arredondo instructed the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he wanted to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring avenue repairs and beautification projects happen.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. The whole lot has a solution. That answer starts with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis police officers entered by means of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that college students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not more lives were misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because youngsters have been in danger, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because that they had not been licensed to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

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

In keeping with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police drive 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, informed the San Antonio Specific-Information in a story printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned in regards to the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers speaking at information conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news convention.

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the person before 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 2 days, Considine said.

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

He said one family advised him that a first responder advised them that their baby, who was shot in the again, possible bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which law enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “instructed” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Related Press writer 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 college taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings