Pedro “Pete” Arredondo began as a 911 operator, answering over and over again calls from people in Uvalde, Texas, who desperately needed help when the latter could mean the difference between life and death.
He should now end his career resigning as head of the police department of the independent school district of Uvalde for not acting while the children made almost a dozen calls for help to 911 while they were locked in the adjoining classrooms, both his teachers as 19 dead or dying classmates.
Each of these calls required more nerve and courage than the allegedly responsible boss showed. Each involved a serious risk taken with the faith that the police would respond immediately.
If this former 911 operator had become unaware of these calls, a quick check would have told him that the children were calling for help even though at least 19 police officers under his immediate command were outside the classroom door.
“Please send the police now,” one child asked after making half a dozen previous calls for 44 minutes, the first 33 minutes after the killer entered the classroom and more than 30 minutes later that the policemen pursuing him should have been ordered to enter. .
By resigning today as soon as he should have responded on Tuesday morning, Arredondo could indicate to grieving families that he considers himself responsible for a police failure that many other law enforcement commanders have called “disgusting.” .
So far he has only tried to save himself from the added embarrassment by deleting his Facebook page where he proudly announced on March 22 that his department had “hosted ‘Active Shooter Training’ at Uvalde High School”.
“Our overall goal is to train all agents in the Uvalde area so that we can prepare as best we can for any situation that may arise,” he said at the time. “We have hosted several of these courses and we plan to continue doing so. I would like to thank the UCISD officers. “
Since the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, the most basic principle of this training has been to immediately involve and neutralize an active shooter before more people die.
The Texas Department of Homeland Security says Arredondo was the commander of the Robb Elementary School incident Tuesday and should have applied that essential principle. But he had not yet given the order to move within an hour and 17 minutes after the killer entered classrooms 111 and 112.
A police officer walks near the makeshift memorial to the victims of the shooting outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
A girl who survived by covering herself with the blood of a friend and becoming dead later would say she could hear the police talking in the hallway outside her class and wondered why they didn’t come in to finish the ‘horror. At least one of the 911 calls was made by such a brave boy that he made it with a phone that dropped his murdered teacher. Arrendondo had not yet taken heart to act when a group of Border Patrol agents decided they had waited long enough for the order to enter. They got the key to the classroom door and did what Arredondo should have commanded in the first few minutes.
More than an hour passed after the killer should have been neutralized. And any trauma doctor will tell you that blood loss is the most common cause of death for shot victims. Two of the children taken to nearby Uvalde Memorial Hospital died, including 9-year-old Jacklyn Cazares. There is a question of whether they could have been saved. The same could be said about the 18 young men and two teachers who died at the scene, bleeding while Arredondo hesitated.
Meanwhile, a growing number of increasingly frantic parents gathered outside the school, kept in check by the responding officers. A mother was reportedly handcuffed after insisting that police do something.
Immediately after the shooting, Arredondo gave a press conference.
“At 11:32 this morning. There was an incident of casualties at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas,” he began. “At school there are children in the second, third and fourth years of primary school. I can confirm right now that we have several injured, adults and students. And we have some deaths. “
He spoke in the somber tone of a professional commander whose cops had done their best.
“The suspect is dead right now,” he continued. “Families are being notified and we are providing them with services. We had a number of law enforcement officers who helped secure the release of these students. “
Unless Arredondo realizes beyond reason, he should have known that the point where the killer died would become a problem, along with his failure to provide families with the service that most they needed by sending these numerous law enforcement officers. He must have been aware that the students had been released safely only after a team from one of these agencies, the Border Patrol, got tired of their inaction.
But he actually posted a video of his appearance in the press on his now-defunct Facebook page. Earlier publications announced his election on May 7 as the District 3 representative in Uvalde City Council. Elections were held in the city’s civic center, where Robb’s parents gathered to wait for news of their children. The count shows that 67 percent of the votes in a four-candidate camp were for the kind-hearted hero of his hometown known as “Pete,” who had become the school’s police chief. April 2020 after his predecessor was accused of firing a gun and threatening a man in a bar.
The former 911 operator had actively tried to become chief and had taken advantage of it to become an elected member of the council, a testament to police-community relations as many jurisdictions would envy. It was also a test of the respect he received from the public as well as the four members of his department. At 50, I was happy enough that the biggest concern he expressed on Facebook was a post that said “ISO good pool cleaner.”
But then the bill came with Tuesday’s shooting. And how could Arredondo as head and counselor help drive Uvalde through his grief when the whole town knows he did nothing while the children ask for help over and over again?
Arredondo did not respond to messages left in his office voicemail and on his cell phone asking if he felt his actions had been unfairly characterized. The messages also asked if he was considering resigning.
Someone who should be considered the new boss is Border Patrol officer Jacob Albarado, who is the father of a high school student and the husband of a Robb teacher. Albarado had been off duty and was sitting down to cut his hair at a barber shop in Uvalde when his wife sent him a text message that there was an active shooter. He arrived moments later along with the barber, who was carrying a shotgun. Albarado led the evacuation of other parts of the school, and those who came to safety include his wife and daughter.
The only way Arredondo can help the city where he grew up is to give up both positions. Maybe you can do penance by answering 911 calls again and sending help immediately to those who desperately need it, in time to save lives.