‘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 — even as mother and father outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the varsity district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored local lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “improper choice” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, said on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers have been killed in the taking pictures.

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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin said in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin said in the assertion. “There may be 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 nearly 30-year profession in legislation 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 school where the shooting happened. “He was a great boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball perhaps as a result of he didn't have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Individuals are very indignant,” Gonzalez said.

Another woman in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up started sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her name, said certainly one of her granddaughters was at the school in the course of the taking pictures but wasn’t hurt.

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

“You enroll to respond to those kinds of situations” Torres stated. “If 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 told the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground working.”

“I have plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he needed to focus not only on the city being fiscally responsible but also ensuring avenue repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board before his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis cops entered via the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple companies arrived on the scene. Finally, 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 students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives have been lost as a result of officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officers have stated that because the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of children had been in danger, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they'd not been approved to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood faculty district, in response to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police drive led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Specific-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was involved about the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the following two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday news convention.

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

“The reality will come out,” mentioned the man earlier than closing the door.

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for 2 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 lots of questions after “so many issues went mistaken.”

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

Gutierrez said whereas the problem of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the local (college district) cop.”

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

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Related 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.

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