‘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 school — whilst dad and mom outdoors begged police to hurry in and panicked kids referred to as 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 said that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken decision” final 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 Safety, mentioned on the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed within the capturing.

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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. It wasn’t instantly clear whether the swearing-in would happen privately or at a later date.

“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” McLaughlin stated in the assertion. “There is nothing within the Metropolis Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Constitution 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 on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her youngsters to the same college the place the taking pictures happened. “He was an excellent boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he did not have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? People are very indignant,” Gonzalez said.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t need to give her identify, mentioned one in all her granddaughters was on the faculty in the course of the capturing but wasn’t harm.

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

“You enroll to reply to those sorts of situations” Torres mentioned. “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 City Council, Arredondo told the Uvalde Leader-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I've loads of ideas, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, including he wanted to focus not only on the town being fiscally responsible but in addition ensuring street repairs and beautification projects occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I guess to me nothing is difficult. Every part has an answer. That resolution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by way of the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw said that college students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo advised more than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives had been misplaced because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of youngsters were in peril, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been licensed to talk publicly about 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 truth about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday statement that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his profession in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. 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 and then for a local school district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees accepted his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde school district’s website, the police force 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, told the San Antonio Specific-News in a narrative printed after the Uvalde capturing that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “simple to speak to” and was involved concerning the students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officials speaking at information conferences over the following two days, but 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 person answering the door at Arredondo’s home advised a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

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

On Tuesday, Travis Considine, chief communications officer for the Texas Department of Public Security, stated 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 lots of questions after “so many things went mistaken.”

He mentioned one family told him that a first responder told them that their child, who was shot within the again, probably bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of those youngsters as effectively,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez stated whereas the problem of which legislation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational management is a “important” concern of his, he’s additionally “advised” to McCraw “that it’s not honest to put it on the native (college district) cop.”

“On the end of the day, all people failed right here,” Gutierrez mentioned.

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and also 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 taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings