‘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 — even as mother and father outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked kids called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school 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 mentioned that the commander on the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong resolution” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, said at the Friday information conference that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers have been killed within 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 City Council after being elected earlier this month, however Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a press release Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t immediately clear whether or not the swearing-in would occur privately or at a later date.

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

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the head police job on the college district.

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

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

Another girl in the neighborhood where Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t need to give her name, said considered one of her granddaughters was on the faculty through the shooting however wasn’t damage.

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 join to answer those sorts of conditions” Torres said. “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 advised the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “ready to hit the bottom running.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I positively have loads of drive,” he stated, including he needed to focus not only on the town being fiscally accountable but in addition making sure street repairs and beautification projects occur.

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

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by way of the identical door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from multiple companies arrived on the scene. Finally, officers stated, 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 assist while Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which goes against established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not extra lives have been misplaced because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two legislation enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them move in because youngsters have been in danger, The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the truth about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that native legislation enforcement hadn’t made any public comments in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his career in regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis situated 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked at the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for a neighborhood school district, in accordance with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police force led by Arredondo also has 5 different officers and a security guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, informed the San Antonio Specific-Information in a story printed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked within the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was involved in regards to the students.

“He was a superb officer down right here,” Garner told the newspaper . “Down right here, we do a number of training on active-shooter eventualities, and he was involved in these.”

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

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the person before 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 mentioned.

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

He stated one household advised him that a first responder advised them that their youngster, who was shot within the back, seemingly bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors may have led to the passing away of those kids as effectively,” Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez mentioned whereas the difficulty of which regulation enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the native (school district) cop.”

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

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Related Press author 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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More on the college taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings