‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s position

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — at the same time as mother and father outside begged police to hurry in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents in the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the favored local lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect resolution” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, mentioned at the Friday information convention 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 in the shooting.

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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, but Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the statement. “There may be nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure 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 legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the identical college the place the capturing happened. “He was a superb boy,” she said.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he didn't have enough expertise. Who knows? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another lady within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t wish to give her title, said one of her granddaughters was at the school through the capturing but wasn’t damage.

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

“You join to respond to those 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 informed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he wanted to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but also making sure avenue repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum before his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. All the pieces has an answer. That solution begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple agencies 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 mentioned that students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist while Arredondo instructed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether extra lives were lost because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from different businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because children have been in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of they'd not been approved to talk publicly about the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks remodeled the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his career in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city positioned 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area college district, in accordance with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees accredited his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police power 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, informed the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned concerning the students.

“He was an excellent officer down right here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down right here, we do numerous coaching on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday news 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 house advised a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

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

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

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

He stated one family informed him that a first responder told them that their baby, who was shot in the again, possible bled out. “So, completely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those youngsters as properly,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned while the difficulty of which regulation enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also contributing have been 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