‘Very indignant’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s function

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — at the same time as dad and mom outdoors begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong determination” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned 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 were killed within the capturing.

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 stated in an announcement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin said within the assertion. “There's 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 much of a nearly 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical faculty where the capturing occurred. “He was an excellent boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he did not have enough expertise. Who knows? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t need to give her name, said one among her granddaughters was on the college through the taking pictures but wasn’t harm.

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

“You sign up to answer those sorts of situations” Torres stated. “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 told the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground running.”

“I've loads of concepts, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he wanted to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but in addition ensuring avenue repairs and beautification projects happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. Everything has an answer. That answer begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis cops entered by way of the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officers stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives have been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officers have stated that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because children were in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been authorized to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement 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 regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area college district, in keeping with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees accredited his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different officers and a security guard.

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

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down right here, we do numerous 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 capturing, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the next two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

After that information convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s residence and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s home informed a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The truth will come out,” said the person earlier than 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 two days, Considine mentioned.

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

He said one household informed him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot within the back, seemingly bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of these youngsters as nicely,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said whereas the difficulty of which regulation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the native (college district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, all people failed right here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also 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 capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings