‘Very angry’: 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 college — at the same time as mother and father exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked kids called 911 from inside — has been positioned 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 well-liked native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “flawed choice” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Security, stated at the Friday news convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two teachers have been killed within the taking pictures.

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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin mentioned in an announcement Monday that the meeting 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 City Council,” McLaughlin said in the assertion. “There's nothing within the Metropolis Constitution, 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 career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head 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 occurred. “He was a good boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he did not have sufficient experience. Who knows? People are very indignant,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another lady within the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t need to give her name, stated one in every of her granddaughters was on the school in the course of the taking pictures however wasn’t harm.

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

“You sign up to respond to those kinds of conditions” Torres stated. “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 “ready to hit the bottom operating.”

“I've loads of concepts, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he said, including he wanted to focus not only on town being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring road repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is difficult. Everything has an answer. That answer begins with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, city law enforcement officials entered through the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group 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 help whereas Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives have been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act quicker.

Two legislation enforcement officials have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because youngsters were in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they'd not been licensed to speak publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the reality in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin mentioned in his Monday assertion that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his profession in regulation 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, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a local faculty district, according to a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo also has 5 other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, instructed the San Antonio Express-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved about the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officers talking at information conferences over the next two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information convention.

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

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

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

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a number of questions after “so many things went wrong.”

He stated one household advised him that a first responder instructed them that their youngster, who was shot within the again, probably bled out. “So, completely, these errors may have led to the passing away of these children as properly,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which regulation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational control is a “significant” concern of his, he’s additionally “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Related Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise contributing had 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 taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings