‘Very angry’: 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 faculty — whilst mother and father outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked youngsters referred to 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 well-liked native lawman after the director of state police mentioned that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “mistaken resolution” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Department of Public Security, mentioned on the Friday information conference 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 shooting.

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 statement Monday that the assembly 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 City Council,” McLaughlin mentioned 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 a lot of an almost 30-year profession in regulation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the pinnacle police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her kids to the identical school the place the taking pictures occurred. “He was an excellent boy,” she mentioned.

“He dropped the ball maybe because he didn't have sufficient experience. Who is aware of? Persons are very indignant,” Gonzalez stated.

Another girl within the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her identify, said one in all her granddaughters was on the school through the taking pictures however wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Army veteran who was visibly upset with reviews coming out about the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You sign up to reply to these sorts of conditions” Torres stated. “If you're scared, then don’t be a police officer. Go flip burgers.”

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

“I have loads of ideas, and I definitely have plenty of drive,” he stated, adding he needed to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but in addition ensuring road repairs and beautification tasks happen.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo mentioned: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. Every little thing has an answer. That solution begins with communication. Communication is key.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the varsity, city cops entered through the same door. Over the course of more than an hour, law enforcement from a number of companies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials mentioned, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical staff used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo advised greater than a dozen officers to attend in a hallway. That directive — which works in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether extra lives were misplaced because officers didn’t act faster.

Two regulation enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, law enforcement officers from different companies urged Arredondo to let them transfer in as a result of youngsters had been in peril, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity as a result of that they had not been licensed to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

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

Arredondo began out his career in legislation 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 labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and then for a local college district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Chief-Information on his return to his hometown to take the school district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees accepted his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde faculty district’s website, the police pressure led by Arredondo additionally has 5 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 revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo labored in the Laredo district he was “straightforward to speak to” and was involved in regards to the college students.

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

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

After that information convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s house and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a man 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 earlier than closing the door.

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

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

He mentioned one family instructed him that a first responder told them that their baby, who was shot in the again, likely bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those kids as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned while the issue of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational management is a “significant” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the local (school district) cop.”

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

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