AUSTIN, Texas – The Uvalde School Board convened a special meeting on Wednesday to consider Police Chief Pete Arredondo . shooting range for his role in the flawed response to Massacre killing 19 students and two teachers at Robb Primary School in the May.
A Texas House of Representatives special committee tasked with investigating the shooting determined that the embattled school district sheriff did not act quickly enough to fatally shoot the gunman. Report, released in July, also determined that Arredondo served as incident commander at the scene and was responsible for directing law enforcement officers. He was reported to have said that he did not believe he was in charge.
Officers stormed classrooms 111 and 112 more than an hour after officers first arrived on the scene, waiting even as children in the classroom called 911 for help multiple times.
Arredondo was placed on paid administrative leave in June. In July, when the board was expected to fire Arredondo one last time but postponed the decision to allow due process, he was brought in Unpaid administrative leave.
‘WE ARE GOING IN OR WE ARE HERE?’:Chaos, confusion caught on Uvalde police bodycam
CALLS TO THE POLICE ACCOUNTING IN UVALDE:Legal experts say pursuing charges can be difficult.
Parents and community members have called for Arredondo to be fired along with five other district officials who responded to the shooting, as well as other district leaders including Robb Elementary School Principal Mandy Gutierrez and Superintendent Hal Harrell.
In public comments over the past few months, Parents, community members and students have expressed concern and frustrated with the district’s lack of response, calling on district leaders to “clean up the house”.
“Why do you keep recruiting these officers?” Rachel Martinez, a mother of four Uvalde students, said at a meeting in July. “And then we’ll have to give our children back to you eight hours a day, five days a week. … You need to clean the house and start from scratch. This failure falls in. All of you.”
Gutierrez was briefly placed on administrative leave in July, but she returned to work and was promoted to the district’s assistant superintendent of special education.
Other law enforcement agencies, including the Uvalde Police Department, said they were internally reviewing their response to the Uvalde school shooting and would act on their findings. Acting Sheriff Uvalde Lieutenant Mariano Pargas was placed on administrative leave in July.
In total, 376 law enforcement officers responded to the school shooting that day, including 91 members of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Arredondo has not made many public comments since the shooting. He newly won resignation as a city council member in July.
