‘Very angry’: 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 college — at the same time as parents exterior begged police to rush in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been placed 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 native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken resolution” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers were killed in the capturing.

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 stated in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately 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 is nothing in the City Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical school where the taking pictures happened. “He was a good boy,” she mentioned.

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

Another girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t want to give her name, stated considered one of her granddaughters was at the faculty in the course of the shooting but wasn’t damage.

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

“You enroll to answer those sorts of situations” Torres said. “If you're scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

After his election to the non-salaried spot on the Metropolis Council, Arredondo advised the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom operating.”

“I've loads of ideas, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he needed to focus not solely on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring avenue repairs and beautification projects happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I guess to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has a solution. That answer begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city law enforcement officials entered by the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from multiple agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

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

Two legislation enforcement officials have said that as the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because children have been in peril, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they'd not been approved to talk publicly in regards to 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 advised the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his profession in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for an area faculty district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police pressure led by Arredondo also has five different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was involved about the students.

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

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

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

“The reality will come out,” stated the person earlier than 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 two days, Considine stated.

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

He mentioned one family told him that a first responder informed them that their youngster, who was shot in the again, doubtless bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of these kids as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which legislation enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the native (college district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, all people failed right here,” Gutierrez stated.

___

Associated Press writer 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 varsity capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings