Uvalde police chief who delayed officer response to Texas capturing to hitch Metropolis Council

The police chief who reportedly made the call not to instantly ship officers into Robb Elementary Faculty to confront a gunman was elected to Uvalde's City Council just three weeks in the past after operating on a platform of communication and outreach to the group. 

Peter Arredondo, the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased College District, stopped at the very least 19 officers from breaking into the college as the gunman opened fire for not less than an hour.

Arredondo believed that the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were not under an energetic threat, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday. 

“From the good thing about hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the appropriate choice. It was a fallacious decision. Interval. There was no excuse for that,” McCraw said at a information conference. “There have been plenty of officers to do what wanted to be done, with one exception, is that the incident commander inside believed he wanted more gear and extra officers to do a tactical breach at the moment."

In line with McCraw, Arredondo believed there was no energetic menace, so instead of sending officers in, he hung out finding keys that would let him into the varsity. During this time, nonetheless, the shooter had unencumbered entry to hold out the assault. Nineteen students and two academics had been killed.

Arredondo was not present amongst regulation enforcement officers standing with McCraw on Friday, and McCraw did not explicitly identify him.

Arredondo did not immediately return a request for comment by NBC News.

As the community calls for solutions and items collectively a shaky and conflicting timeline of events, scrutiny has turned to Arredondo, who was born and raised in Uvalde. 

After working as the police captain at the United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas, about 140 miles south of Uvalde, Arredondo returned to his hometown in April 2020, when he accepted the position of chief of police for the Uvalde college district, in keeping with the Uvalde Chief-Information.

The former chief, Leo Flores, resigned after being arrested on fees of unlawfully carrying a gun in a bar and threatening an officer, the newspaper reported. 

Arredondo told the Chief-News that he was desperate to serve the neighborhood, saying he was committed to establishing a powerful working relationship with the three officers he can be main. 

“We want to be sure that we are available wherever we're wanted,” Arredondo instructed the newspaper.

As Arredondo’s tenure hit two years, his local likability led to a successful bid for a City Council seat this month. He beat out three other candidates, garnering nearly 70 percent of the vote within the May 7 election, reported the Uvalde Leader-Information. 

The chief campaigned, largely door-to-door, on communication and outreach “to these in want,” the newspaper mentioned. 

“I’m very excited, I'm able to hit the ground working. I've plenty of concepts, and I positively have plenty of drive,” Arredondo advised the outlet this month.

Arredondo is scheduled to be sworn onto the council on Tuesday, exactly one week after the Uvalde taking pictures.

Safia Samee Ali is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in Chicago.