‘Very angry’: 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 faculty — at the same time as mother and father outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters known as 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 popular native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “incorrect decision” 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 pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Security, said on the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two academics have been killed within the capturing.

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

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

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

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the identical college where the taking pictures occurred. “He was a superb boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball possibly because he didn't have enough experience. Who is aware of? People are very angry,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her identify, mentioned one in every of her granddaughters was at the school during the shooting but wasn’t harm.

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

“You enroll to respond to these sorts 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 advised the Uvalde Leader-News earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom working.”

“I have loads of concepts, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he said, adding he needed to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but additionally making sure street repairs and beautification initiatives happen.

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

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city law enforcement officials entered via the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, 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 lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more 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, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of youngsters were in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because that they had not been approved to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, together with remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

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 located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for a local college district, in response to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees accredited his appointment to the spot.

According to the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police drive led by Arredondo also has five other officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo where Arredondo worked, told the San Antonio Specific-News in a story printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “easy to talk to” and was involved in regards to the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the shooting, appeared behind state officials talking at information conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not current at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

After that information conference, 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 instructed a reporter for The Associated Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

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

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

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

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

Gutierrez stated whereas the difficulty of which law enforcement company had or should have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

“On the finish of the day, everybody failed here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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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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Extra on the school taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings