Uvalde school police chief indicted over mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead

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The former school police chief of Uvalde, Texas has been indicted on child endangerment charges over his role in responding to the Robb Elementary Schoolshooting in May 2022.

Pete Arredondo was indicted by a Uvalde grand jury on Thursday, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Adrian Gonzales, a former officer who was also indicted, and Arredondo are facing charges of abandoning/endangering a child, a state felony.

Arredondo and Gonzales are the first law enforcement officials to be charged over what many considered to be a failed response to the massacre on 24 May 2022 that left 19 fourth graders and two educators dead.

On the day of the shooting, Arredondo, who served as chief of of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s police force, was considered to be the incident commander. Gonzales was one of the responding officers on the school police force.

At least two dozen state, local and federal agencies and nearly 400 officers responded to the shooting, but officials waited 77 minutes before entering the classroom where the shooter had barricaded himself. All that time, officers stood in the hallway as the massacre took place.

Following the shooting, Arredondo said that he didn’t know that he was in charge of the response.

The Express-News was not able to reach Arredondo for comment and Gonzales hung up on a reporter.

In January, The US Department of Justice released a critical incident review into the shooting that found that there was a delayed response in confronting the assailant. Police doctrine states that officers should immediately act to confront an active shooter.

When releasing the report, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “Had law enforcement followed generally accepted practices in an active-shooter situation and gone right after the shooter to stop him, lives would have been saved, and people would have survived.”

The 18-year-old shooter started his rampage at the school around 11.33am. Armed with a semiautomatic rifle, he walked into the school’s West Building and went to classrooms 111 and 112, which were interconnected. He fired more than 100 rounds in two and a half minutes.

The indicted officials were some of the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the scene. As officers went to approach the classrooms, the shooter fired several shots through the door and wall. One of the responding officers was shot in the head and arm, another was hit in the ear.

That’s when officials called for backup, bullet proof vests and other protective equipment. About 20 minutes after the shooting began, Arredondo made the call not to enter the classrooms. Instead, police worked to clear the building as they planned to negotiate with the shooter.

According to an investigation into the shooting conducted by the city, Uvalde police officers had wanted to enter the classrooms once they had protective shields but Arredondo’s decision “overrode” that action, the Express-News reported.

Even though Arredondo served as the school police chief, all of the other agencies had to defer to his orders due to his incident command position.

Arredondo was eventually fired from his post and the entire school police force was replaced by the district. Families of the victims have long campaigned for charges to be brought against Arredondo for his actions.

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