Uvalde’s district police chief has been sacked over the hesitant response by lots of of closely armed regulation enforcement officers through the May bloodbath at Robb Elementary School.
In a unanimous vote, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s (UCISD) board of trustees dismissed police chief Pete Arredondo, three months to the day after one of many deadliest classroom shootings in US historical past.
He had been on unpaid administrative go away since shortly after the 24 May capturing.
Parents yelled “coward” within the room the place the assembly passed off.
Mr Arredondo didn’t attend, nevertheless minutes it acquired underway his lawyer launched a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief’s fullest defence thus far of his actions.
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Over 17 defiant pages, it insisted Mr Arredondo was not the fumbling faculty police chief who a damning state investigation blamed for not taking command and wasted time by in search of keys to a probable unlocked door, however a courageous officer whose level-headed selections saved the lives of different college students.
The letter additionally accused Uvalde faculty officers of placing his life in danger by not letting him carry a weapon to the varsity board assembly.
“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,” the letter acknowledged.
It additionally mentioned the district was within the flawed for dismissing him, saying it didn’t perform any investigation “establishing evidence supporting a decision to terminate” his employment.
Because Mr Arredondo was UCISD police chief, the varsity board had the ability to fireside him.
State police and a damning investigative report in July criticised the previous police chief of the roughly 4,000-student faculty district for failing to take cost of the scene, not breaching the classroom sooner and losing time by in search of a key to a probable unlocked door.
Investigations and physique digital camera footage have laid naked how police rushed to the scene with bulletproof shields and high-powered rifles inside minutes – however waited greater than an hour earlier than lastly confronting the gunman in a classroom of fourth graders.
Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fireside Mr Arredondo in July however postponed the choice on the request of the police chief’s legal professional.
Only one different police official on the scene, Uvalde police lieutenant Mariano Pargas, is thought to have been positioned on go away because the capturing.
Mr Pargas was town’s appearing police chief through the bloodbath.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which had greater than 90 state troopers on the scene, has additionally launched an inside investigation into the response by state police.
Source: information.sky.com”