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

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary faculty — at the same time as parents outside begged police to hurry in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been placed 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 favored native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken decision” last 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 top of the Texas Department 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 academics have been killed in the capturing.

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

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

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent a lot of an almost 30-year profession in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job at the college district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical school where the capturing happened. “He was a superb boy,” she stated.

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

Another girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when requested about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her title, stated considered one of her granddaughters was on the faculty through the shooting however wasn’t harm.

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

“You enroll to answer 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 Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom operating.”

“I've plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he stated, adding he needed to focus not only on town being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring street repairs and beautification tasks occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I assume to me nothing is sophisticated. All the things has a solution. That solution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city police officers entered through the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical workforce used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that college students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which fits against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives were lost because officers didn’t act faster.

Two law enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, legislation enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in because children had been in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because that they had not been authorized to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t instructed the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday assertion that local legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

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

According to the Uvalde school district’s website, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has five different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was concerned about the students.

“He was a superb officer down here,” Garner informed the newspaper . “Down right here, we do lots of coaching on active-shooter situations, and he was involved in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two brief news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials talking 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 dwelling and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a man answering the door at Arredondo’s house informed a reporter for The Related Press that Arredondo was “indisposed.”

“The reality will come out,” said the person before 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 stated.

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

He mentioned one family advised him that a first responder informed them that their baby, who was shot within the back, probably bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes could have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez stated.

Gutierrez mentioned while the problem of which law 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 put it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

“At the end of the day, everyone failed right here,” Gutierrez said.

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Associated Press author Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition contributing were Curt Anderson in Miami, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Mike Balsamo in Washington and Elliott Spagat in Uvalde.

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More on the varsity capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings