‘Very indignant’: Uvalde locals grapple with school chief’s position

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — even as mother and father exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked children referred to as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong choice” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

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

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool 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 mentioned in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin said in the statement. “There may be nothing within the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

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

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

“He dropped the ball maybe as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who is aware of? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her title, stated one in every of her granddaughters was on the faculty through the capturing however wasn’t harm.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reports coming out concerning the response, stated he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You sign up to respond to those kinds of conditions” 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 instructed the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom working.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I positively have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wanted to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but also making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

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

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis police officers entered by way of the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical crew used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which fits towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not more lives were lost as a result of officers didn’t act faster.

Two regulation enforcement officials have stated that because the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to let them move in because youngsters were in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been licensed to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his profession in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a local college district, in response to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News 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 school district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, advised the San Antonio Categorical-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was involved concerning the students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a whole lot of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was involved in those.”

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

After that news conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s home 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 reality will come out,” mentioned the person earlier than closing the door.

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

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district consists of Uvalde, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a number of questions after “so many things went mistaken.”

He stated one family told him that a first responder told them that their child, who was shot in the again, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these errors could have led to the passing away of these children as nicely,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing have been Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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More on the college taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings