‘Very indignant’: Uvalde locals grapple with college chief’s role

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — even as dad and mom outdoors 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 within the small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police said that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “unsuitable decision” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary College sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and kids weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the top of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned at the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the constructing, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two lecturers had 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, but Mayor Don McLaughlin stated in a statement Monday that the meeting wouldn’t occur. 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 City Council,” McLaughlin stated within the statement. “There may be nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of workplace.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of a nearly 30-year career in regulation 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 children to the identical school the place the capturing occurred. “He was a great boy,” she mentioned.

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

Another lady in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up began sobbing when asked about him. The girl, who didn’t want to give her title, said one in all her granddaughters was on the college throughout the taking pictures but wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with experiences popping out about the response, mentioned he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You join to reply to these kinds of conditions” Torres mentioned. “If 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 instructed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground operating.”

“I've plenty of concepts, and I undoubtedly have plenty of drive,” he mentioned, adding he wanted to focus not solely on the city being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring road repairs and beautification tasks happen.

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

McCraw mentioned Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered via the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, legislation enforcement from a number of businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical group used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw mentioned that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which fits in opposition to established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions on whether or not extra lives have been lost because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in because children have been at risk, The officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they'd not been licensed to talk publicly in regards to the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officials’ claims, including remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t advised the truth about the massacre. 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 regulation enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Division. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border metropolis located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, where he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace and then for a neighborhood college district, according to a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-News on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The school district’s board of trustees approved his appointment to the spot.

Based on the Uvalde school district’s web site, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has five different officers and a safety guard.

Ray Garner, the police chief of the district in Laredo the place Arredondo worked, instructed the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a story published after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “simple to talk to” and was involved concerning the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two short information conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officials speaking at information conferences over the next two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news 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 reality will come out,” mentioned the person earlier than closing the door.

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

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

He stated one household advised him that a first responder advised them that their baby, who was shot within the again, seemingly bled out. “So, completely, these mistakes may have led to the passing away of these children as well,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez mentioned while the difficulty of which law enforcement agency had or should have had operational control is a “important” concern of his, he’s also “urged” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to put it on the local (faculty district) cop.”

“At the finish of the day, all people failed here,” Gutierrez said.

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

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