‘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 school — even as mother and father outside begged police to hurry in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been positioned with the college district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the popular native lawman after the director of state police stated that the commander at the scene — Pete Arredondo — made the “fallacious determination” final week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and youngsters weren’t at risk.

Steven McCraw, the pinnacle of the Texas Division of Public Safety, mentioned on the Friday information convention that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen kids and two academics were killed within the capturing.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from high school right 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 mentioned in an announcement Monday that the assembly wouldn’t happen. 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 Metropolis Council,” McLaughlin said in the assertion. “There is nothing in the Metropolis Constitution, Election Code, or Texas Structure that prohibits him from taking the oath of office.”

The 50-year-old Arredondo has spent much of an almost 30-year career in legislation enforcement in Uvalde, returning in 2020 to take the top police job on the school district.

When Arredondo was a boy, Maria Gonzalez used to drive him and her children to the same faculty the place the taking pictures happened. “He was a superb boy,” she stated.

“He dropped the ball perhaps because he didn't have enough experience. Who knows? Individuals are very angry,” Gonzalez stated.

One other woman in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t want to give her title, stated considered one of her granddaughters was on the faculty in the course of the taking pictures but wasn’t damage.

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

“You sign up to reply to these kinds of conditions” Torres said. “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 advised the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the bottom running.”

“I have loads of ideas, and I undoubtedly have loads of drive,” he stated, including he wished to focus not solely on the town being fiscally accountable but additionally ensuring avenue repairs and beautification initiatives occur.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo said: “I assume to me nothing is difficult. Every little thing has an answer. That solution begins with communication. Communication is vital.”

McCraw said Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the school, city cops entered by means of the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, regulation enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Lastly, officials said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team used a janitor’s key to unlock the classroom door and kill the gunman.

McCraw stated that students and teachers had repeatedly begged 911 operators for help whereas Arredondo told greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which matches towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives had been lost because officers didn’t act sooner.

Two law enforcement officers have said that as the gunman fired at college students, legislation enforcement officers from other businesses urged Arredondo to allow them to transfer in as a result of youngsters had been in danger, The officials spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been licensed to talk publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed again on officials’ claims, including remarks made over the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t informed the reality in regards to the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that local law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback in regards to the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his career in law enforcement working for the Uvalde Police Department. After spending 16 years there, he went to Laredo, a border city located 130 miles (209 kilometers) miles to the south, the place he worked on the Webb County Sheriff’s Workplace after which for a neighborhood college district, in keeping with a 2020 article in the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The college district’s board of trustees authorised his appointment to the spot.

In keeping with the Uvalde school district’s website, 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 labored, told the San Antonio Categorical-Information in a story revealed after the Uvalde shooting that when Arredondo worked in the Laredo district he was “easy to speak to” and was concerned in regards to the college students.

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

Arredondo, who spoke only briefly at two quick information conferences on the day of the capturing, appeared behind state officials talking at news conferences over the subsequent two days, however was not present at McCraw’s Friday information conference.

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

“The truth will come out,” stated the man before 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 includes Uvalde, stated on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he’s asking a lot of questions after “so many issues went fallacious.”

He said one household told him that a first responder advised them that their youngster, who was shot in the back, possible bled out. “So, absolutely, these errors might have led to the passing away of those children as properly,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Gutierrez said while the issue of which legislation enforcement agency had or ought to have had operational management is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “prompt” to McCraw “that it’s not fair to put it on the native (college district) cop.”

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

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Associated Press writer Stengle contributed from Dallas, and likewise 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 shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings