The Uvalde School District Board has decided to suspend Police Chief Pete Arredondo, effective today. The decision comes amid criticism of police action during the Robb Elementary School massacre, in which 19 children and two female teachers lost their lives.
This news was given through a statement issued by Superintendent Hal Harrell. “From the beginning of this terrible event, I shared that The district will wait until the investigation is complete before taking a decision. employee,” the document says.
Harrell said it was not yet clear when district officials would know the results of the shooting investigation.
Criticism of the police actions, which took an hour and 19 minutes to act during the massacre, has escalated, while Arredondo has so far maintained that he does not consider himself the person in charge of the operation and takes it lightly. Were. that someone else had taken over.
Police response to Uvalde: a “despicable failure”
Arredondo’s investigation has escalated after Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw called his response to the shooting “a bona fide failure” during a public hearing in the Texas Senate chamber on Tuesday.
The public security chief presented a timeline indicating that three officers with two rifles entered the building less than three minutes after the gunman, one with an 18-year-old AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Several more agents came in minutes later. Initially two officers who entered the hallway received minor bullets.,
McCraw said the decision not to act goes against what police have learned in the two decades since the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, which killed 13 people. “You don’t need to wait for the SWAT team. One agent is enough.”
