‘Very angry’: Uvalde locals grapple with faculty chief’s position

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary college — at the same time as parents outdoors begged police to rush in and panicked kids known as 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief.

It’s left residents within the small metropolis 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 “incorrect resolution” last week to not breach a classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty sooner, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children weren’t in danger.

Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, stated on the Friday news conference that after following the gunman into the building, officers waited over an hour to breach the classroom. Nineteen youngsters and two teachers have been killed within the shooting.

Arredondo, who grew up in Uvalde and graduated from highschool right 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 press release Monday that the assembly 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 in the statement. “There's nothing within the City Charter, 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 nearly 30-year profession in regulation 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 great boy,” she mentioned.

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

Another girl in the neighborhood the place Arredondo grew up started sobbing when asked about him. The lady, who didn’t need to give her identify, said one of her granddaughters was at the school in the course of the shooting however wasn’t damage.

Juan Torres, a U.S. Military veteran who was visibly upset with reviews popping out concerning the response, stated he knew Arredondo from highschool.

“You join to respond to these 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 instructed the Uvalde Chief-Information earlier this month that he was “able to hit the ground working.”

“I have plenty of ideas, and I definitely have loads of drive,” he stated, adding he wanted to focus not solely on town being fiscally accountable but also making sure street repairs and beautification projects happen.

At a candidates’ discussion board earlier than his election, Arredondo stated: “I suppose to me nothing is difficult. The whole lot has an answer. That answer starts with communication. Communication is essential.”

McCraw stated Friday that minutes after the gunman entered the college, metropolis police officers entered by the same door. Over the course of greater than an hour, law enforcement from multiple businesses arrived on the scene. Finally, officers said, a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team 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 help while Arredondo informed greater than a dozen officers to wait in a hallway. That directive — which works towards established active-shooter protocols — prompted questions about whether or not more lives had been misplaced as a result of officers didn’t act sooner.

Two regulation enforcement officers have mentioned that because the gunman fired at students, regulation enforcement officers from other companies urged Arredondo to allow them to move in as a result of children had been in peril, The officers spoke on situation of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly concerning the investigation.

McLaughlin, the Uvalde mayor, pushed back on officers’ claims, together with remarks revamped the weekend by Texas’ lieutenant governor, that they weren’t told the reality about the massacre. McLaughlin stated in his Monday assertion that native law enforcement hadn’t made any public feedback about the investigation’s specifics or misled anyone.

Arredondo started out his profession in regulation 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 after which for an area college district, in accordance with a 2020 article within the Uvalde Leader-Information on his return to his hometown to take the college district police chief job. The varsity district’s board of trustees permitted his appointment to the spot.

In accordance with the Uvalde college district’s web site, the police power led by Arredondo additionally has 5 other officers and a security guard.

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

“He was an excellent officer down here,” Garner instructed the newspaper . “Down here, we do lots of training on active-shooter scenarios, and he was concerned in those.”

Arredondo, who spoke solely briefly at two short news conferences on the day of the taking pictures, appeared behind state officers talking at news conferences over the following two days, but was not present at McCraw’s Friday news convention.

After that news convention, members of the media converged at Arredondo’s home and police cruisers took up posts there. At one point, a person answering the door at Arredondo’s house advised a reporter for The Related 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 Division of Public Safety, mentioned Arredondo had not responded to DPS interview requests for two days, Considine mentioned.

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

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

Gutierrez said whereas the issue of which legislation enforcement company had or should have had operational control is a “vital” concern of his, he’s additionally “recommended” to McCraw “that it’s not truthful to place it on the local (college district) cop.”

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

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