UVALDE, Texas — The Uvalde faculty district has fired police chief Pete Arredondo underneath mounting stress within the grieving Texas city to punish officers over the legislation enforcement response to the lethal elementary faculty bloodbath by 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 lecturers.
In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s board of trustees fired Arredondo throughout a gathering additionally attended by mother and father and survivors of the May 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 high school in Uvalde, the place some kids are nonetheless too scared or scarred to return inside a classroom.
The crowd cheered following the vote, and a few mother and father walked away in tears. Outside, a number of Uvalde residents referred to as for different officers to be held accountable.
“Coward!” some within the viewers yelled because the assembly bought underway.
Arredondo, who has been on depart from the district since June 22, has come underneath probably the most intense scrutiny of the almost 400 officers who rushed to high school however waited greater than 70 minutes to confront the 18-year-old gunman within the fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School.
Most notably, Arredondo was criticized for not ordering officers to behave sooner. Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has stated Arredondo was in command of the legislation enforcement response to the assault.
Minutes earlier than the varsity board assembly bought underway, Arredondo’s lawyer launched a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief’s fullest protection so 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 possible unlocked door, however as a substitute as a courageous officer whose level-headed choices 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 12 months earlier than the capturing and asserted he wasn’t in command 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 “legitimate risks of harm to the public and to Chief Arredondo.”
“Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn’t reach in time,” George Hyde wrote.
Hyde’s workplace has not responded to a request for remark.
Uvalde faculty officers have been underneath rising stress from victims’ households and members of the neighborhood, lots of whom had referred to as for Arredondo’s termination. Superintendent Hal Harrell first moved to fireside Arredondo in July however postponed the choice on the request of Arredondo’s lawyer.
At the assembly was Ruben Torres, father of Chloe Torres, who survived the capturing in room 112 of the varsity.
“Right now, being young, she is having a hard time handling this horrific event,” Torres stated.
Shirley Zamora, the mom of a pupil at Robb Elementary, stated accountability shouldn’t finish with Arredondo’s dismissal.
“This is just going to be the beginning. It’s a long process,” she stated.
Only one different officer — Uvalde Police Department Lt. Mariano Pargas, who was the town’s appearing police chief on the day of bloodbath — is understood to have been positioned on depart for his or her actions in the course of the capturing.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, 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 something so badly that people are getting hurt, then certainly we have to have some greater accountability,” he stated.
School officers have stated the Robb Elementary campus will not be used when college students return Sept 6. Instead, campuses elsewhere in Uvalde will function momentary school rooms for elementary faculty college students, not all of whom are prepared to return to high school in-person following the capturing.
School officers say a digital academy might be provided for college kids. The district has not stated what number of college students will attend just about, however a brand new state legislation handed final 12 months in Texas following the pandemic limits the variety of eligible college students receiving distant instruction to “10% of all enrolled students within a given school system.”
Schools can search a waiver to exceed the restrict however Uvalde has not accomplished so, in response to the Texas Education Agency.
New measures to enhance faculty security in Uvalde embrace “8-foot, non-scalable perimeter fencing” at elementary, center and highschool campuses, in response to the varsity district. Officials say they’ve additionally put in further safety cameras, upgraded locks, enhanced coaching for district employees and bettering communication.
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Associated Press author Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
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For extra AP protection of the Uvalde faculty capturing: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
Source: www.bostonherald.com”