UVALDE, Texas—The Uvalde faculty district has fired police chief Pete Arredondo below mounting strain within the grieving Texas city to punish officers over the legislation enforcement response to the lethal elementary faculty bloodbath during which a person armed with an AR-15-style rifle remained in a fourth-grade classroom for greater than an hour, killing 19 kids and two academics.
In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, the Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District’s board of trustees fired Arredondo throughout a gathering additionally attended by mother and father and survivors of the Could 24 bloodbath. Arredondo, who was not current, is the primary officer to lose his job following one of many deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. historical past.
His ouster got here three months to the day after the tragedy and fewer than two weeks earlier than college students return to highschool in Uvalde, the place some kids are nonetheless too scared or scarred to return inside a classroom.
The gang cheered following the vote, and a few mother and father walked away in tears. Outdoors, a number of Uvalde residents known as for different officers to be held accountable.
“Coward!” some within the viewers yelled because the assembly obtained underway.
Arredondo, who has been on go away from the district since June 22, has come below essentially the most intense scrutiny of the practically 400 officers who rushed to highschool however waited greater than 70 minutes to confront the 18-year-old gunman within the fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary College.
Most notably, Arredondo was criticized for not ordering officers to behave sooner. Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Division of Public Security, has stated Arredondo was in control of the legislation enforcement response to the assault.
Minutes earlier than the varsity board assembly obtained underway, Arredondo’s lawyer launched a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief’s fullest protection thus far of his actions. Over 17 defiant pages, Arredondo was described not as a fumbling chief blamed in a damning state investigation for not taking command and losing time looking for keys to a probable unlocked door, however as an alternative as a courageous officer whose level-headed selections saved the lives of different college students.
It alleges that Arredondo warned the district about a wide range of safety points within the faculties a yr earlier than the capturing and asserted he wasn’t in control of the scene. The letter additionally accused Uvalde faculty officers of placing his security in danger by not permitting him to hold a weapon to the varsity board assembly, citing “respectable dangers of hurt to the general public and to Chief Arredondo.”
“Chief Arredondo is a pacesetter and a brave officer who with all the different legislation enforcement officers who responded to the scene, must be celebrated for the lives saved, as an alternative of vilified for these they couldn’t attain in time,” George Hyde wrote.
Hyde’s workplace has not responded to a request for remark.
Uvalde faculty officers have been below growing strain from victims’ households and members of the neighborhood, a lot of whom had known as for Arredondo’s termination. Superintendent Hal Harrell first moved to fireplace Arredondo in July however postponed the choice on the request of Arredondo’s lawyer.
On the assembly was Ruben Torres, father of Chloe Torres, who survived the capturing in room 112 of the varsity.
“Proper now, being younger, she is having a tough time dealing with this horrific occasion,” Torres stated.
Shirley Zamora, the mom of a scholar at Robb Elementary, stated accountability shouldn’t finish with Arredondo’s dismissal.
“That is simply going to be the start. It’s a protracted course of,” she stated.
Just one different officer — Uvalde Police Division Lt. Mariano Pargas, who was the town’s appearing police chief on the day of bloodbath — is thought to have been positioned on go away for his or her actions in the course of the capturing.
The Texas Division of Public Security, which had greater than 90 state troopers on the scene, is conducting an investigation into the response by state police. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents Uvalde, stated McCraw, the state police chief, additionally deserves scrutiny.
“You fail at one thing so badly that persons are getting damage, then definitely we’ve to have some larger accountability,” he stated.
College officers have stated the Robb Elementary campus will now not be used when college students return Sept 6. As a substitute, campuses elsewhere in Uvalde will function momentary lecture rooms for elementary faculty college students, not all of whom are prepared to return to highschool in-person following the capturing.
College officers say a digital academy might be supplied for college students. The district has not stated what number of college students will attend just about, however a brand new state legislation handed final yr in Texas following the pandemic limits the variety of eligible college students receiving distant instruction to “10% of all enrolled college students inside a given faculty system.”
Faculties can search a waiver to exceed the restrict however Uvalde has not completed so, in accordance with the Texas Training Company.
New measures to enhance faculty security in Uvalde embrace “8-foot, non-scalable perimeter fencing” at elementary, center and highschool campuses, in accordance with the varsity district. Officers say they’ve additionally put in extra safety cameras, upgraded locks, enhanced coaching for district employees and enhancing communication.
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