Pete Arredondo, police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, has been criticized for handling a shooting at Robb Primary School on May 24 that killed 19 third- and fourth-graders and two teachers, and for delaying police entry. in the classrooms where the gunman carried out the attack. Arredondo served as the incident commander at the scene of the shooting. The permit will take effect immediately, the school district said in a statement Wednesday. Lieutenant Mike Hernandez will take over as Chief of Police, said Dr. Hal Harrell, inspector of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. “From the beginning of this horrific event, I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was completed before making staff decisions,” Harel said. “Today, I am still without details about the investigations carried out by various services. Due to the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown time when I will receive the results of the investigations, I decided to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave with effect from on that date “. Arredondo was the only witness to the shooting hearing that took place during an executive session of the Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday. Later that night, the Uvalde City Council unanimously rejected Arredondo’s request for permission from future meetings. Arredondo was sworn in as a city council member in late May. During a State Senate hearing Tuesday on school security, police training and social media after the shooting, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCrow read aloud a transcript of police radio communications. Revealing that almost an hour after the gunman entered the school, an officer told the police chief, “People will ask why we are so late.” “We are trying to protect life,” Arredondo was quoted as saying. Parents and community members called for Arredondo’s resignation on Monday, with many arguing that law enforcement should be held accountable in part for the tragedy because of what is described as inadequate decision-making. Earlier this month, Arredondo told The Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the commander on the scene on the day of the shooting and that no one told him about the 911 calls that came during the 77 minutes before the shooting. . “We responded to the information we had and had to adjust to what we encountered,” he said. “Our goal was to save as many lives as we could and removing the students from the classrooms from all involved saved more than 500 students and teachers in Uvalde before we could access the shooter and eliminate the threat.” State investigators, according to a preliminary assessment, believe that the decision to delay the entry of police into the classroom was made in order to give the protective equipment time to arrive at the scene, an official was informed of a closed-door presentation by the head of his department. Texas. The Department of Public Safety told ABC News earlier this month. However, waiting for protective equipment runs counter to the protocols of active snipers that have been adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country over the past 20 years. ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Bonnie Mclean contributed to this report.
