‘Very indignant’: 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 — whilst parents outside begged police to hurry in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

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

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Division of Public Safety, stated at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two teachers were killed within the shooting.

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

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin mentioned in the statement. “There may be nothing in the Metropolis Charter, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of an almost 30-year career in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job at the faculty district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the same faculty the place the capturing happened. “He was a great boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he did not have enough expertise. Who is aware of? People are very offended,” Gonzalez mentioned.

Another girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The girl, who didn’t wish to give her title, mentioned certainly one of her granddaughters was at the college during the taking pictures however wasn’t damage.

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

“You sign up to reply to these kinds of situations” Torres said. “If you are scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

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

“I have plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he mentioned, including he needed to focus not solely on town being fiscally responsible but additionally making sure road repairs and beautification tasks occur.

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

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by means of the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials stated, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that students and academics had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help while Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether more lives had been lost because officers didn’t act faster.

Two legislation enforcement officials have said that because the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because kids had been in peril, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they'd not been approved to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the reality concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public comments about the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo began out his career in legislation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he labored on the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for an area school district, in accordance with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees authorized his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college 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 where Arredondo labored, informed the San Antonio Categorical-News in a story published after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was concerned about the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials speaking at news conferences over the following two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

After that news conference, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s residence and police cruisers took up posts there. At one level, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s house instructed a reporter for The Associated 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 Security, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for two days, Considine said.

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

He said one household instructed him that a first responder advised them that their baby, who was shot within the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those children as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said while the difficulty of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “suggested” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the local (college district) cop.”

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

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