Uvalde CISD Fires Police Chief Round 01:02
The police chief of the Uvalde school district was fired Wednesday after allegations that he made several critical mistakes during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead. In a unanimous vote that came after months of angry calls for his ouster, the Uvalde Unified Independent School District board fired Pete Arredondo to a roomful of parents and survivors of the May 24 massacre. His removal came three months after one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. Cheers from the crowd followed the vote and some parents left in tears. “Coward!” parents shouted in a Uvalde auditorium as the meeting began. Uvalde shooting report finds ‘systemic failures’ in law enforcement response 06:49 Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has come under the most intense scrutiny of the nearly 400 officers who rushed to the school but waited more than an hour to confront the 18-year-old gunman in a fourth-grade classroom. More specifically, Arredondo was criticized for not ordering the officers to act sooner. Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Arredondo was responsible for the law enforcement response to the attack. Arredondo wasn’t watching his career on the line. Instead, minutes before the Uvalde school board meeting began, Arredondo’s attorney released a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief’s most comprehensive defense to date of his actions. Over 17 provocative pages, Arredondo is not the delusional 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 level-headed decisions saved the lives of other Students. Uvalde’s video sparks outrage over delayed police response 02:56 It claims Arrendondo warned the district about various school safety issues a year before the shooting and claimed he was not responsible for the scene. The letter also accused Uvalde school officials of endangering his safety by not letting him carry a gun to the school board meeting, citing “legitimate risks of harm to the public and to Chief Arredondo.” “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 that were unable to arrive in time,” Hyde wrote. Uvalde school officials are facing mounting pressure from victims’ families and community members, many of whom have called for Arredondo’s termination. Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fire Arredondo in July, but postponed the decision at the request of the police chief’s attorney. Among those attending the meeting was Ruben Torres, father of Chloe Torres, who survived the shooting in room 112 of the school. He said that as a former Marine, he took an oath that he faithfully fulfilled willingly and did not understand why officers did not act when leadership failed. Uvalde police chief resigns from city council 00:23 “Right now, being young, she’s having a hard time dealing with this horrible event,” Torres said. Arredondo is the first officer to be fired over the law enforcement’s hesitant and confused response to the May 24 tragedy. Only one other officer — Lt. Mariano Pargas of the Uvalde Police Department, who was the city’s acting police chief on the day of the massacre — is known to have been placed on leave for his actions during the shooting. 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. Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the Department of Public Safety would provide at least 30 additional police officers to Uvalde public school campuses. “We must ensure that students, parents and all dedicated school staff can look forward to new opportunities for learning and growth,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to work to provide all available support and resources to the Uvalde community as they continue to heal.” School officials have said the campus at Robb Elementary will no longer be used. Instead, campuses elsewhere in Uvalde will serve as temporary classrooms for elementary school students, not all of whom are willing to return to school in person after the shooting. School officials say a virtual academy will be offered for students. The district has not said how many students will attend virtually, but a new state law passed last year in Texas after the pandemic limits the number of eligible students receiving distance education to “10% of all enrolled students in a given school system.” . ‘Police failed us’: Uvalde victim’s family responds to report 03:54 Schools can request a waiver to exceed the limit, but Uvalde has not, according to Melissa Holmes, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. New measures to improve school security in Uvalde include “8-foot, non-scalable perimeter fencing” on elementary, middle and high school campuses, according to the school district. Officials say they have also installed additional security cameras, upgraded locks, improved training for area staff and improved communication. However, according to the district’s own progress reports, as of Tuesday fencing had not been erected at six of the eight campuses where it was planned, and cameras had been installed only at the high school. Some progress had been made on locks at three of the eight campuses, and communication improvement was noted as incomplete for each campus. Uvalde CISD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shooting school in Uvalde, Texas
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