‘Very offended’: 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 — whilst parents outside begged police to hurry in and panicked kids called 911 from inside — has been placed with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper resolution” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Division of Public Security, said on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers were killed in 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, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. 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 stated within the statement. “There's nothing within the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

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 at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical school the place the shooting happened. “He was a good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly as a result of he didn't have sufficient expertise. Who knows? Persons are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her identify, stated 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 stories coming out concerning the response, said he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You sign up to reply to those kinds of conditions” Torres said. “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 informed the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom working.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he wished to focus not only on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition making sure road repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I assume to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has an answer. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis police officers 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 mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that college students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo informed more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which works against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives had been lost as a result of officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officials have stated that because the gunman fired at college students, law enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters were in danger, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of that they had not been approved to talk publicly about 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 instructed the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin said in his Monday assertion that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

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 metropolis located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for a local college district, in line with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde college district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has 5 different officers and a security guard.

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

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

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the following two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

After that news conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s residence and police cruisers took up posts there. At one level, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s home advised a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the person before closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 days, Considine stated.

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

He said one household informed him that a first responder advised them that their child, who was shot within the again, doubtless bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors could have led to the passing away of those children as nicely,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez stated while the problem of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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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.

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