Peter Arredondo, chief since 2020, campaigned on communication and outreach “to those in need,” the local newspaper reported.
www.nbcnews.com
May 27, 2022, 2:04 PM PDT
The Uvalde police chief who made the call not to immediately send officers into Robb Elementary School to confront a gunman was elected to the City’s Council just three weeks ago after running on a platform of communication and outreach to the community.
Peter Arredondo, the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, stopped at least 19 officers from breaking into the school as the gunman opened fire for at least an hour.
Arredondo believed that the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were not under an active threat, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday.
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According to McCraw, Arredondo believed there was no active threat, so instead of sending officers in, he spent time finding keys that would let him into the school. During this time, however, Ramos had unencumbered access to carry out the attack. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed.
Arredondo was not present among law enforcement officials standing with McCraw on Friday, and McCraw did not explicitly name him.
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As the community demands answers and pieces together a shaky and conflicting timeline of events, scrutiny has turned to Arredondo, who was born and raised in Uvalde.
After working as the police captain at the United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas, about 140 miles south of Uvalde, Arredondo returned to his hometown in April 2020, when he accepted the position of chief of police for the Uvalde school district, according to the
Uvalde Leader-News.
The former chief, Leo Flores, resigned after being arrested on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun in a bar and threatening an officer, the
newspaper reported.