Texas: Uvalde School District Police Chief Fired

The police chief of the school district of Uvalde was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after allegations that he failed to respond to the shooting at the Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers died.

LOOK: Shooting in Texas: police were armed to neutralize the attack at the Uvalde school in “three minutes”

The superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated School District, Hal Harrell, reported that he has administratively discharged the district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, because the facts of what happened remain unclear. Without discussing Arredondo’s actions as the on-site commander during the attack, Harrell said in a statement that he did not know when details about the multiple investigations into the police response would be released.

“I shared from the start of this horrific event that the district would wait for the investigation to conclude before making any staffing decisions,” Harrell said. “Due to the lack of clarity that persists and the uncertainty of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective this date.”

Anne Marie Espinoza, a spokeswoman for the Uvalde school district, declined to say whether Arredondo will continue to be paid during the leave.

Another officer will assume Arredondo’s duties, Harrell said.

Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a state Senate hearing Tuesday that Arredondo made “terrible decisions” while the May 24 massacre was taking place, and that the police response was a “dismal failure.” ”.

Three minutes after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school, enough police officers armed with rifles were on the scene to arrest the assailant, McCraw testified. However, officers waited in a hallway at the school for more than an hour while the attacker carried out the massacre. The classroom door was not lockable from the inside, but there is no indication that officers tried to open the door while Ramos was inside, McCraw said.

McCraw has said parents begged police to intervene and inside the classroom students repeatedly called 911 for help while more than a dozen officers waited in the hallway. Some agents asked Arredondo to allow them to act because children were in danger.

“The only thing that stopped the dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on site, who decided to put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children,” McCraw stated.

Senator Paul Bettencourt said during the hearing that Arredondo should have resigned immediately.

“This man had to leave his job immediately because, just by looking at his response, he was unable to do his job,” Bettencourt said.

Arredondo and his attorney have declined repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press and did not respond Wednesday for comment about his license.

Arredondo has tried to justify his actions, telling the Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the commander in charge of the operations and that he assumed someone else had taken control of the police response. He said he didn’t have his police and campus radios with him, but he used his cell phone to call for a tactical team, a sniper and the keys to the classroom.

It remains unknown why the officers took so long to enter the classroom, how they communicated with each other during the attack, and what the officers’ body cameras captured.

Authorities have refused to release further details, arguing that the investigation is ongoing.

Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year police career in the city. He took over from him as head of the school district police in 2020, and was sworn in as a member of the city council during a private ceremony on May 31.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.