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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — whilst parents outside begged police to hurry 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 city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular local lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong decision” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated 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 academics have been killed within 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, but Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin said in the assertion. “There may be nothing in the Metropolis Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure 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 regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the school district.

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

“He dropped the ball maybe because he did not have sufficient experience. Who knows? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her title, stated one in every of her granddaughters was at the college during the shooting but wasn’t damage.

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

“You join to reply to those 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 informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom working.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he said, adding he wished to focus not only on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition making sure avenue repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is complicated. Every little thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city law enforcement officials entered via the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of agencies 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 mentioned that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo instructed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether extra lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because youngsters have been in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they had not been authorized to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, together with remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality about the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

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

According to the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, informed the San Antonio Express-News in a story published after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was involved about the students.

“He was a wonderful officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down right here, we do plenty of training on active-shooter situations, and he was involved in these.”

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

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

“The truth will come out,” stated the person earlier than closing the door.

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

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

He stated one family instructed him that a first responder advised them that their youngster, who was shot in the again, possible bled out. “So, completely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those children as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which legislation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, everybody failed here,” Gutierrez said.

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