In a unanimous vote, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) board fired Police Chief Pete Arredondo, three months after one of the deadliest shootings in US history. He was on unpaid administrative leave shortly after the May 24 shooting. Parents shouted “coward” in the hall where the meeting took place. Mr. Arredondo was not present, but within minutes his lawyer released a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief’s most comprehensive defense yet of his actions. Read more: US schools stocked with AR-15 rifles after Uvalde shooting Texas governor attends fundraiser as police deal with aftermath of massacre Over 17 provocative pages, he insisted that Mr. Arredondo was not the errant school police chief who a damning state investigation accused of failing to take charge and wasting time searching for keys to a potentially unlocked door, but a brave officer whose egalitarian decisions saved the lives of other students.
More about the Texas School Shooting
The letter also accused Uvalde school officials of putting his life in danger by not letting him bring a gun to the school board meeting. “Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who, along with all other police officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives that were saved, rather than those who were unable to arrive in time,” the letter said. . He also said the district was wrong to fire him, saying it did not conduct any investigation “that established evidence to support the decision to terminate” his employment. Image: Parents and family members hold signs at a Uvalde Unified Independent School District Board of Trustees meeting Because Mr. Arredondo was the UCISD police chief, the school board had the authority to fire him. State police and a damning investigative report in July criticized the former police chief of the roughly 4,000-student school district for failing to take charge of the scene, not breaching the classroom earlier and wasting time searching for a key to a potentially unlocked door. Investigations and body camera footage revealed how police rushed to the scene with bulletproof shields and high-powered rifles within minutes – but waited more than an hour before finally confronting the gunman in a classroom of fourth-graders. Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fire Mr. Arredondo in July, but postponed the decision at the request of the police chief’s lawyer. Only one other police officer at the scene, Uvalde police Lt. Mariano Pargas, is known to have been placed on leave after the shooting. Mr. Pargas was the city’s acting police chief at the time of the massacre. The Texas Department of Public Safety, which had more than 90 state troopers at the scene, also launched an internal investigation into the state police response.
