Former Uvalde police chief slapped with 10 felony child endangerment charges



The former school district police chief who oversaw the failed response to the May 24, 2022, elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has been indicted on 10 counts of felony child endangerment.

An 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School and slaughtered 19 children and two teachers in adjoining classrooms 111 and 112. It was not until 77 minutes after police first arrived on the scene that U.S. Border Patrol neutralized the shooter. In the meantime, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department Chief Pete Arredondo ostensibly worked against an effective solution and wasted precious time down the hall.

The Department of Justice's 600-page January report on law enforcement's response to the shooting concluded that Arredondo, the de facto incident commander on the day of the incident, "had the necessary authority, training, and tools" but did not ultimately "provide appropriate leadership, command, and control, including not establishing an incident command structure nor directing entry into classrooms 111 and 112."

Extra to ordering officers not to enter the classrooms where the shooter was located, Arredondo dropped his radios at the time of arrival, treated the incident "as a barricaded subject scenario and not as an active shooter situation," and waited for SWAT to arrive.

The DOJ's report made clear that rather than "push forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until entry was made into classrooms 111/112 and the threat was eliminated," Arredondo and those with him retreated after the initial burst of gunfire.

The Texas House of Representatives' 2022 interim report similarly indicated that while in the position to act, Arredondo impotently "remained in the hallway where he lacked reliable communication with other elements of law enforcement, and he was unable to effectively implement staging or command and control of the situation."

The Ulvalde Leader-News reported that Arredondo's indictment this week accused him of "intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, and with criminal negligence" placing 10 children in imminent danger of bodily injury or death by failing to identify the situation as an active shooter incident despite hearing gunshots in the classroom.

The indictment further indicated that upon learning children had been injured, Arredondo elected to direct officers to evacuate the wing before confronting the shooter; failed to ascertain whether the door to classroom 111 was even locked; and failed to "timely provide keys and breaching tools to enter classrooms 111 and 112," reported NBC News.

The DOJ's report had noted the likelihood that the door was unlocked.

Shortly after turning himself in to the Uvalde County Jail Thursday, Arredondo was released on bail.

The Uvalde Police Department noted that it had not been contacted by the district attorney's office regarding any of its staff and presently had no comment on the matter.

The Austin American-Statesman reported that a grand jury also indicted former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales. Arredondo and Gonzales each face up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Uvalde school police chief to resign from city council



Pete Arredondo – the highly criticized Uvalde school police chief – will resign from his city council position, according to a new report.

A few weeks before the mass shooting on May 24 that killed 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary School, Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde city council. He was sworn into the position on May 31. However, Arredondo will reportedly step down from the position in the Texas town.

"After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3. The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions. I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde,” Arredondo told Uvalde Leader-News.

“As we continue to grieve over the tragedy that occurred on May 24th, we pray for the families involved and our community," Arredondo told the local newspaper. "Uvalde has a rich history of loving and supporting thy neighbor and we must continue to do so. In speaking with other communities that have had similar tragedies, the guidance has been the same… continue to support the families, continue to support our community, and definitely, to keep our faith."

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said the city has yet to receive a resignation letter from Arredondo, but McLaughlin called it "the right thing to do," Fox News reported.

Following the deadly school shooting, Arredondo had requested an extended leave from the city council. However, city council denied his request during a meeting held on June 21.

The chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department was placed on administrative leave on June 22. The day prior, Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee that police officers could have ended the deadly school massacre within minutes. However, under Arredondo's command, the mass shooter was not neutralized until 77 minutes after the gunman entered Robb Elementary School.

Arrendondo earns an annual salary of $90,750 as the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department, according to Uvalde Leader-News.

A report from last month stated that a Uvalde police officer passed up an opportunity to open fire on the school shooter. The report also said that law enforcement never tried to open the classroom door where the gunman was.

'We're not going back!': Uvalde superintendent says students will never return to Robb Elementary School; school board declines to punish police chief



The Uvalde school board held a special meeting on Friday where the decision was made for students and staff to never return to the Robb Elementary School. The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District board also took no action against the police chief who failed to confront the school shooter.

"We're not going back to that campus," said Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell at the meeting after a tearful parent said her second-grade daughter was traumatized and "deathly afraid" of going back to the school.

"We have plans for it to become something other than a school site," Harrell added.

During the special meeting of the board of trustees, Harrell said he expects to have a new location for the school in the "very near future."

Also at the meeting, the board decided to not take any disciplinary action against the school district's police chief.

Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo failed to confront the shooter in the barricaded classroom.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw declared that as many as 19 police officers had gathered outside the classroom with the gunman, but did not engage the shooter until approximately 75 minutes after the lethal attack began.

McCraw criticized Arredondo's decision to not engage the shooter, "From the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period.”

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the decision not to engage the gunman sooner "may have" cost lives.

Arredondo said he didn't send his officers into the classroom because he believed the situation no longer involved an "active shooter."

However, multiple calls to 911 were made within the school – some were from students inside the classroom with the mass killer. Minutes before the shooter was killed, a girl in the school pleaded to a 911 dispatcher, "Please send the police now."

Two law enforcement sources informed the American-Statesman that Arredondo arrived at the shooting without his police radio and other critical equipment that may have impaired the police response to the rampage.

The gunman was finally shot and killed by Federal Border Patrol officers – who defied local law enforcement's order to stand down after waiting for 30 minutes, according to NBC News.

The 18-year-old killer murdered 19 students and two teachers.

The Texas Tribune noted that Arredondo failed to practice recommended active shooter tactics:

In modern active shooter tactics, police are trained to immediately take down gunmen instead of waiting for backup or additional resources in order to save as many lives as possible. Instead, law enforcement at the scene of the Uvalde shooting requested “specialty equipment” and body armor and organized a tactical team to reenter the school, taking over an hour to take out the gunman despite having arrived at the scene within minutes after the shooter entered the school.

"According to the meeting agenda, Arredondo could have been suspended or terminated," the Epoch Times reported.

During the meeting, Harrell was asked about the investigations into the failure of stopping the gunman in a timely manner – one by Uvalde County’s district attorney and one by the federal Department of Justice.

"I know that people ask about the investigation. I know that investigation’s ongoing. I know the DOJ is reviewing that investigation," Harrell said. "I want answers just like everybody but I don't have answers. They've not given me answers. So I don’t have anything to provide you in that realm. I don't. I wish I did have answers."

Arredondo did not attend the school board meeting, and has kept a low profile since the mass shooting on May 24.