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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — whilst mother and father outside begged police to hurry in and panicked kids called 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 popular local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect resolution” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

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

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool right here, was set to be sworn in Tuesday to his new spot on the City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly 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 statement. “There is nothing within the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a virtually 30-year profession in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical faculty where the taking pictures happened. “He was a very good boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he did not have enough experience. Who knows? People are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

Another woman within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her name, said one among her granddaughters was on the school in the course of the taking pictures but wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to respond to these 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 City Council, Arredondo informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground running.”

“I've loads of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, including he wanted to focus not solely on town being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo stated: “I guess to me nothing is complicated. All the things has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

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

McCraw mentioned that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether extra lives have been misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have said that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of children were at risk, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been approved to speak publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the truth in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

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

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

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, informed the San Antonio Express-Information in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was involved about the students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down right here, we do numerous coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was involved in these.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials talking at information conferences over the next two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

After that news conference, 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 house informed a reporter for The Related 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 2 days, Considine stated.

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

He mentioned one household instructed him that a first responder told them that their baby, who was shot in the back, seemingly bled out. “So, absolutely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of these children as nicely,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which regulation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the local (school district) cop.”

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

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Associated 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 varsity capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings