Pete Arredondo was put on administrative leave Wednesday because the police chief of the Uvalde, Texas, school district after a month of sharp criticism for his determination to delay confronting the gunman within the taking pictures that killed 19 youngsters and two academics, the district superintendent stated.
Hal Harrell, the superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, famous in a written assertion Wednesday that he has stated the district would wait till the investigation into the May 24 bloodbath at Robb Elementary School was full earlier than it made personnel selections.
“Today, I am still without details of the investigations being conducted by various agencies,” he stated. “Because of 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 place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective on this date.”
No additional information was launched about Arredondo or the choice. Lt. Mike Hernandez will take on the duties of chief, Harrell stated.
An lawyer for Arredondo didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
State authorities have described Arredondo because the incident commander through the bloodbath. Arredondo has stated he didn’t take into account himself to be the officer in cost.
Officials have stated Arredondo incorrectly handled the gunman as a barricaded suspect as a substitute of an lively shooter. After greater than an hour, federal brokers entered the room and fatally shot the 18-year-old gunman.
Federal and state businesses are investigating the regulation enforcement response.
On Tuesday, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Col. Steve McCraw, described the regulation enforcement response as an “abject failure” at a state Senate committee listening to.
McCraw went minute by minute explaining how police may have entered the unlocked room the place the shooter was. In the preliminary days after the taking pictures, it was extensively reported that police had been saved from breaking into the school rooms and had been in search of keys as a result of the doorways had been locked.
The lives of law enforcement officials, McCraw stated, had been valued greater than these of the kids who had been killed.
“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” he stated. “The officers have weapons. The children had none. The officers had body armor. The children had none. The officers had training. The subject had none.”
Law enforcement officers and not less than one ballistic defend had been within the school about 19 minutes after the gunman entered school rooms, in accordance an approximate timeline the Department of Public Safety launched Tuesday.
One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds handed from the time police entered the constructing till the gunman was killed, in response to McCraw and the timeline.
Arredondo, who has principally saved a low profile and prevented media questions, advised The Texas Tribune this month that officers by no means “hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk.”
Arredondo, who took over as police chief for the school district in 2020, additionally advised The Tribune he thought-about himself a front-line responder — not the individual managing the broader response.
“I didn’t issue any orders,” he advised The Tribune. “I called for assistance and asked for an extraction tool to open the door.”
According to The Tribune, as soon as Arredondo decided he couldn’t enter the classroom with the gunman inside, he dialed police dispatch from his cellphone and requested for a tactical unit, snipers and an extrication instrument to open the door.
“It’s not that someone said stand down,” Arredondo’s lawyer, George Hyde, advised The Tribune. “It was, ‘Right now, we can’t get in until we get the tools. So we’re going to do what we can do to save lives.’ And what was that? It was to evacuate the students and the parents and the teachers out of the rooms.”
Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde City Council on May 7, and he was sworn in throughout a non-public ceremony May 31, every week after the taking pictures. There was imagined to be a council assembly that day, but it surely was canceled in light of the tragedy. When the council reconvened for a particular emergency assembly every week later, on June 7, he was a no-show.
Arredondo additionally didn’t attend a gathering Tuesday evening at which the council unanimously declined to grant his request for a leave of absence from future council conferences.
The council can declare a member’s seat vacant if the member misses three consecutive conferences with out having first obtained a leave of absence, in response to the town constitution. Tuesday’s assembly could be the primary of the three absences, Mayor Don McLaughlin stated.
Tim Stelloh, David Ok. Li and Phil Helsel contributed.