‘Very offended’: 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 college — at the same time as dad and mom outside begged police to rush in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been positioned 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 “fallacious choice” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, said on the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two lecturers had been killed within the capturing.

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 Metropolis Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a press release Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

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

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of a virtually 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the college 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 as a result of he did not have enough experience. Who knows? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez said.

Another girl in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her identify, stated considered one of her granddaughters was at the school through the capturing however wasn’t hurt.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reviews popping out in regards to the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from high school.

“You sign up to reply to these kinds of conditions” 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 City Council, Arredondo advised the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the ground operating.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he wished to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but in addition ensuring avenue repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I assume to me nothing is sophisticated. Every thing has an answer. That answer starts with communication. Communication is key.”

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

McCraw said that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which goes against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives have been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two law enforcement officials have stated that because the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters had been in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth in regards to the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area school district, according to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde college district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has five different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Specific-News in a story printed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was involved concerning the college students.

“He was a superb officer down here,” Garner advised the newspaper . “Down right here, we do quite a lot of training on active-shooter eventualities, and he was concerned in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials speaking at news conferences over the next two days, but was not current at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

After that information convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s dwelling and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a person 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, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine said.

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

He mentioned one household instructed him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot within the again, possible bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those children as nicely,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez said whereas the problem of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (college district) cop.”

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

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