‘Very offended’: Uvalde locals grapple with faculty chief’s position

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

It’s left residents within the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police stated 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 youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, 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 academics have been killed within 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. 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 mentioned within the assertion. “There is nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

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

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

“He dropped the ball possibly as a result of he did not have sufficient expertise. Who is aware of? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her identify, mentioned one of her granddaughters was at the faculty throughout the capturing but wasn’t harm.

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

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

“I've loads of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he wished to focus not solely on the city being fiscally responsible but in addition ensuring avenue repairs and beautification projects occur.

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

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by means of the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of 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 teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives were misplaced because officers didn’t act quicker.

Two regulation enforcement officers have said that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because youngsters were at risk, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been licensed to speak publicly about 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 instructed the truth concerning the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning 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 situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for an area school 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 authorized his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde school district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo additionally has five other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, advised the San Antonio Specific-News in a story printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned about the college students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down right here, we do loads of coaching on active-shooter scenarios, 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 officers talking at information conferences over the next two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

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

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

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

He mentioned one family instructed him that a first responder told them that their child, who was shot within the back, likely bled out. “So, completely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those kids as properly,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the issue of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the local (school district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, everyone failed here,” Gutierrez stated.

___

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

___

Extra on the school capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings