‘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 — at the same time as dad and mom outside begged police to hurry in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis 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 “improper choice” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two lecturers had been killed in the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school right 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 happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin stated within the assertion. “There's nothing within the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year career in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job on the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the same faculty where the shooting occurred. “He was a good boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he didn't have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

One other lady within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her identify, stated one in every of her granddaughters was at the college during the taking pictures but wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with studies popping out in regards to the response, said he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You sign up to reply to these kinds of situations” Torres mentioned. “If 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 informed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground working.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he said, adding he wished to focus not solely on town being fiscally accountable but also making sure street repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. Every thing has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city cops entered by the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officials said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of children have been in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they'd not been approved to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo began out his career in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a neighborhood faculty district, according to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police power led by Arredondo also has 5 other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, told the San Antonio Express-Information in a narrative printed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved about the students.

“He was a wonderful officer down here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down here, we do lots of coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials speaking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, but was not current 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 man answering the door at Arredondo’s home instructed a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The truth will come out,” stated the man before closing the door.

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

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

He mentioned one family informed him that a first responder told them that their little one, who was shot within the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes might have led to the passing away of these children as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said while the difficulty of which legislation enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

“On the finish of the day, everyone failed right here,” Gutierrez said.

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Related Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition 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 varsity taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings