Pete Arredondo, the previous chief of the college district police in Uvalde, Texas, has been indicted and arrested over his actions in the course of the police response to the 2022 college taking pictures by which a gunman killed 19 kids and two lecturers, the Uvalde County sheriff mentioned on Thursday.
“Mr. Arredondo is at present in our custody,” the sheriff, Ruben Nolasco, mentioned in a textual content message, including that Mr. Arredondo was being held on the cost of “abandoning/endangering of a kid.”
Christina Mitchell, the district lawyer for Uvalde, and attorneys for Mr. Arredondo didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The indictment, which comes greater than two years after the Might 24 bloodbath at Robb Elementary Faculty, suggests failures within the police response past poor decision-making, accusing Mr. Arredondo, who was answerable for the six-person division with jurisdiction over Uvalde faculties, of bearing prison duty for his actions that day.
Even earlier than the grand jury started convening this 12 months, the police response had been the topic of overlapping investigations, together with by the U.S. Justice Division, a committee of the Texas Legislature and an investigator employed by town of Uvalde. Every discovered critical flaws within the actions of officers who responded to the taking pictures at Robb Elementary Faculty.
Ms. Mitchell carried out her personal investigation and offered proof to the grand jury.
Mr. Arredondo was among the many first officers to reach at Robb Elementary, simply minutes after the gunman entered the college by an unlocked door and started firing at kids and lecturers in a pair of related lecture rooms with an AR-15-style rifle.
He and different college district officers, together with others from the native Police Division, moved towards the sound of gunfire, however as they reached the school rooms’ doorways, the gunman fired at them and so they retreated to a protected place down the corridor.
Mr. Arredondo, who left his radio behind in his automotive as he rushed into the college, has mentioned that he didn’t consider he was in cost on the scene and in addition that he took steps to evacuate different elements of the constructing to save lots of extra lives.
This can be a growing story. Test again for updates.
