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Pete Arredondo, the police chief of Uvalde College District on the middle of nationwide dismay and outrage over the official response to final month’s taking pictures at Robb Elementary College, has been positioned on administrative depart, an official mentioned Wednesday.
Arredondo’s standing change is efficient instantly, in keeping with a press release despatched to The Every day Beast. The assertion was attributed to Dr. Hal Harrell, the Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District’s superintendent.
“From the start of this horrible occasion, I shared that the district would wait till the investigation was full earlier than making personnel selections,” Harrell mentioned. “At present, I'm nonetheless with out particulars of the investigations being carried out by varied companies.”
“Due to the shortage of readability that is still and the unknown timing of when I'll obtain the outcomes of the investigations, I've made the choice to put Chief Arredondo on administrative depart efficient on this date.”
Harrell added that Lt. Mike Hernandez could be taking up Arredondo’s duties within the interim and that the district would “proceed to hunt certified candidates” to fill the position on a extra everlasting foundation over the summer season.
No different data was instantly shared by the superintendent.
Arredondo’s administrative depart comes hours after his request to take a depart of absence from the Uvalde Metropolis Council, to which he was elected three weeks earlier than the taking pictures, was denied.
He and different Texas regulation enforcement officers have confronted criticism and questions over why it took authorities lower than three minutes after the taking pictures started to enter the college constructing however greater than an hour to get into two school rooms the place the gunman was holed up with younger kids and lecturers.
The Might 24 taking pictures left 19 kids and two lecturers lifeless.
“The one factor stopping a hallway of devoted officers from getting into rooms 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who determined to put the lives of officers over the lives of youngsters,” Steve McCraw, the Texas Division of Public Security’s director, mentioned earlier this week. “The officers had weapons. The kids had none.”
Arredondo has mentioned he didn't know he was the officer in cost on the scene that day, which runs opposite to each federal protocol and state authorities’ description of him as incident commander.
In an interview with the Texas Tribuneearlier this month, Arredondo additionally claimed that a locked door and ring of greater than two dozen keys stymied his makes an attempt to get into the elementary college classroom shortly.
Studies swiftly surfaced to dispute the chief’s excuse, nevertheless, with the San Antonio Specific-Informationnotably reporting over the weekend that surveillance footage confirmed that law enforcement officials by no means tried to open the door.
At a Texas Senate listening to on Tuesday, McCraw confirmed that the classroom doorways couldn't be locked from the within.