Uvalde massacre: the chief of police is suspended
Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo , during a press conference at the end of May.
The Uvalde School District Police Chief, who was in charge of operations when a shooter killed 19 children and two female teachers on May 24, has been suspended, it was announced Wednesday the district superintendent.
The announcement comes a day after the Texas Director of Public Safety slammed the police response to the massacre as an absolute failure.
From the beginning of this horrific event, I have maintained that the District will wait until the investigation is complete before making any personnel decisions […]. Due to the remaining lack of clarity and the fact that I do not know when I will receive the results of the investigation, I have made the decision to place Chief [Pete] Arredondo on leave Administrative as of today, Superintendent Hal Harrell said in a statement.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw , had in particular castigated the fact that Pete Arredondo had decided to put the lives of officers before those of children.
Steven McCraw, Director of the Department of Public Safety of Texas, admitted authorities made a “bad decision” in the shooting.
We know one thing: there is compelling evidence that law enforcement's response to the attack on Robb Elementary School was an absolute failure and runs counter to everything we've learned in the past two decades since the Columbine high school massacre in 1999, he said.
The time taken by the police — over an hour — to get into the classroom and kill the 18-year-old shooter has been the subject of heavy criticism since the shooting, and Steven McCraw had hit the nail on the head in that TV hearing.
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The officers had guns, not the children. The officers had bulletproof vests, the children did not. The agents were trained, not the shooter, he said again.
The mayor of Uvalde also announced on Tuesday that Robb Elementary School will be demolished.
It would be unthinkable to ask a child or a teacher to return to this school, said Don McLoughlin.
