DALLAS (AP) – Uvalde School District Police Chief on Leave on Wednesday on Allegations Wrong in Response to Massive Shootout at Robb Elementary School Leaving 19 Students and two dead teachers.
Uvalde Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell said he put administrative police chief Pete Arredondo on administrative leave because the facts of what happened are not yet clear. In a statement, Harrell did not address Arredondo’s actions as commander in situ during the attack, but said he did not know when details of federal, state and local investigations into the response of the forces of the forces would be revealed. ‘order to the murders.
“From the start of this horrific event, I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was completed before making staffing decisions,” Harrell said. “Due to the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to put Chief Arredondo on effective administrative leave from that date.”
A spokeswoman for the Uvalde school district, Anne Marie Espinoza, declined to say whether Arredondo would continue to charge during the leave.
Another officer will take over as the assaulted chief, Harrell said.
Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Homeland Security, said Tuesday in a state Senate hearing that Arredondo made “terrible decisions” as the May 24 massacre unfolded and that the police response was an “abject failure.”
Three minutes after Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the school, there were enough armed security forces at the scene to stop the gunman, McCraw said. However, police officers armed with rifles waited in the hallway of a school for more than an hour while the gunman carried out the massacre. The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication that officers attempted to open it while the gunman was inside, McCraw said.
McCraw said parents asked police outside the school to move in and that students in the classroom repeatedly called for help from 911 operators while more than a dozen officers waited. in a hallway. Officers from other agencies urged Arredondo to let them in because the children were in danger.
“The only thing that stopped a corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander at the scene who decided to put the life of the officers before that of the children,” McCraw said.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin rejected McCraw’s testimony blaming Arredondo, saying the Department of Homeland Security had repeatedly posted false information about the shooting and ignored the role of its own agents.
McLaughlin called a “clown show” in the Senate on Tuesday and said he had heard nothing from McCraw about the involvement of state soldiers, although McLaughlin said his number in the aisle of the school at times during the massacre surpassed that of any other law enforcement agency.
Delays in police response to the shooting have become the focus of ongoing investigations and public protest. Law enforcement has sometimes offered confusing and sometimes contradictory details and deadlines that have provoked anger and frustration.
Uvalde City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday against granting Arredondo, who is a councilor, a leave of absence to appear at public meetings. Relatives of the victims of the shooting had asked city leaders to fire her.
“Please, please, we ask you, take this man out of our lives,” said Berlinda Arreola, the grandmother of Amerie Jo Garza, a 10-year-old girl who was shot dead in the attack.
Senator Paul Bettencourt told the state Senate hearing that Arredondo should have resigned immediately.
“This man should have retired immediately from work because, just looking at his answer, he was unable to do so,” Bettencourt said.
Arredondo and his lawyer have rejected repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press and did not immediately respond to a consultation on Wednesday about his resignation.
Arredondo has tried to defend his actions, telling the Texas Tribune that he was not considered the commander in charge of operations and that he assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response. He said he did not have his police and campus radios, but that he used his cell phone to call for tactical equipment, a sniper and classroom keys.
It is still unclear why it took so long for police to enter the classroom, how they communicated with each other during the attack and what their body cameras show.
Officials declined to give further details, citing the investigation.
Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career as a police officer in the city. He took over as head of police in the school district in 2020 and was sworn in as a member of the City Council at a closed-door ceremony on 31 May.
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