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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — whilst mother and father outside begged police to rush in and panicked kids referred to as 911 from inside — has been placed with the college 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 mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious choice” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children 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 children and two academics have been killed in the taking pictures.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool 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 stated in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin stated within the assertion. “There's nothing within the Metropolis 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 an almost 30-year profession in law enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the same college where the taking pictures happened. “He was a very good boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he didn't have sufficient expertise. Who is aware of? Persons are very angry,” Gonzalez mentioned.

One other girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The woman, who didn’t want to give her title, mentioned one in every of her granddaughters was on the school throughout the taking pictures however wasn’t harm.

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

“You join to reply to these sorts of situations” 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 instructed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom running.”

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

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I guess to me nothing is sophisticated. All the things has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis cops entered through the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials 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 whereas Arredondo instructed more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not more lives have been lost because officers didn’t act quicker.

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

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the truth about the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday assertion that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started 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, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood college district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police force 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 worked, told the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was concerned about the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the next two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news conference.

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

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

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

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

He mentioned one family advised him that a first responder instructed them that their child, who was shot in the again, likely bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes might have led to the passing away of these children as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez said while the problem of which regulation enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the native (college district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, everybody failed right here,” Gutierrez said.

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise 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 college shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings