‘Very indignant’: 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 school — at the same time as mother and father exterior begged police to hurry in and panicked youngsters known as 911 from inside — has been positioned 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 well-liked local lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “wrong choice” final week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Security, stated on the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen children and two lecturers have been killed within the taking pictures.

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, however Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. It wasn’t instantly clear whether 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's 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 a lot of a virtually 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job at the faculty district.

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

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

Another girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The woman, who didn’t wish to give her name, said one among her granddaughters was on the faculty during the capturing but wasn’t hurt.

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

“You sign up to answer these kinds of conditions” Torres stated. “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 advised the Uvalde Chief-News earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wished to focus not only on the town being fiscally responsible but in addition making sure road repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ forum earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I suppose to me nothing is complicated. All the things has a solution. That resolution starts with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis law enforcement officials entered by the identical door. Over the course of more than an hour, regulation enforcement from a number of agencies arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials 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 lecturers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for assist whereas Arredondo told more than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether more lives have been lost as a result of officers didn’t act faster.

Two legislation enforcement officials have stated that as the gunman fired at college students, regulation enforcement officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in because children have been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they'd not been authorized to speak 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 told the truth concerning the bloodbath. McLaughlin said in his Monday statement that native regulation enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback concerning the investigation’s specifics or misled anybody.

Arredondo started out his career in legislation 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, where he labored at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office after which for a local college district, in line with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Chief-News on his return to his hometown to take the varsity district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees accredited his appointment to the spot.

In response to the Uvalde faculty district’s web site, the police force led by Arredondo also has five other officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo labored, advised the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a narrative revealed after the Uvalde taking pictures that when Arredondo labored within the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was concerned concerning the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two quick news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers speaking at news conferences over the next two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

“The truth will come out,” mentioned the person earlier than closing the door.

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

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

He mentioned one household advised him that a first responder told them that their baby, who was shot within the back, likely bled out. “So, completely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those youngsters as properly,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez said while the difficulty of which regulation enforcement company had or ought to have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s also “steered” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to place it on the native (faculty district) cop.”

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

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Related Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and in addition 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 capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings