The Uvalde school district police chief resigned from his post on City Council just weeks after he was sworn in after allegations that he erred in his response to the mass shooting at Robb Primary School that left 19 pupils and two teachers dead.
Chief Pete Arredondo said in a letter dated Friday that he had decided to step down for the good of the city and “to keep further distractions to a minimum.” He was elected to the council on May 7 and was sworn in in a closed ceremony on May 31, just a week after the massacre.
“The mayor, the city council and the city staff must continue to move forward to reunite our community,” Arredondo said in his resignation, first reported by the Uvalde Leader-News.
Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, second from the left, resigned from his post on city council just weeks after being sworn in after allegations that he erred in his response to the mass shooting at Robb Primary School that left 19 students dead.
Arredondo said in a letter that he was stepping down “to reduce further distractions”
The front page of the Uvalde Leader News from Sunday 3 July is in the picture
Arredondo, who has been on administrative leave from his school district position since June 22, has denied repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press. His attorney, George Hyde, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday.
On June 21, the city council unanimously voted to deny Arredondo a leave of absence to appear at public meetings. Relatives of the shooters pleaded with city leaders to fire him.
Uvalde City Council released Arredondo’s resignation letter on Saturday, after city officials were notified by email of his attempt to retire but did not comment further.
Representatives of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not respond to AP’s requests for comment.
Many parents and family members of children and staff at Robb Primary School expressed anger over delays in police action after gunman entered school
Uvalde residents Kim Hammond, right, and Donna Torres are protesting for the removal and removal of Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo, next to the memorial to the victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary School last month at Uvalde Town Square, Texas .
A camera shows officers with guns and at least one ballistic shield inside at 11:52 – just 19 minutes after the gunman entered two classrooms. Officers had guns and a ballistic shield on site within minutes – but still waited an hour to enter the classroom
Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a state Senate hearing last month that Arredondo – the commander on the ground – had made “terrible decisions” as the May 24 massacre unfolded. and that the police response was an ‘abject failure.’
Three minutes after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school, enough armed law enforcement officers were on the scene to stop the gunman, McCraw testified. Yet police officers armed with rifles stood in a schoolyard for more than an hour waiting while the gunman carried out the massacre.
The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication that officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside, McCraw said.
McCraw said parents begged police outside the school to move in and students in the classroom repeatedly pleaded with 911 operators for help while more than a dozen officers waited in a hallway. Officials from other agencies have asked Arredondo to let them move in because children are in danger.
Children run to safety after escaping from a window during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School where a gunman killed nineteen children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, in May.
19 children and 2 teachers who died in the mass shooting are displayed at a temporary memorial at Robb Primary School in Uvalde
“The only thing that prevented a corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander at the scene who decided to put the lives of officers before the lives of children,” McCraw said.
Arredondo tried to defend his actions and told the Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the commander in charge of operations and that he accepted that someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response.
He said he did not have his police and campus radios, but that he used his cell phone to call tactical equipment, a sniper and the classroom keys.
It is still not clear why it took so long for the police to enter the classroom, how they communicated with each other during the attack and what their body cameras show.
Officials declined to disclose more details, citing the investigation.
Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city.
A campaign sign for Pete Arredondo, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief, hangs from a fence in Uvalde, Texas