Former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo indicted on 10 counts of Endangering/Abandoning Child
The charges against Arredondo are state jail felonies that could result in a two-year prison sentence.
UVALDE, Texas — A grand jury indictment of former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) Police Chief Pete Arredondo was unsealed Friday, charging him with 10 counts of Endangering/Abandoning a Child.
Texas law says that a person is guilty of Abandonment or Endangerment of a Child if they intentionally abandon the child in any place under circumstances that exposes the child to an unreasonable risk of harm.
Another former UCISD officer, Adrian Gonzales, is also expected to be indicted, but what crime he has been indicted for will not be revealed until Gonzales surrenders to police.
Arredondo was employed as the Chief of Police for UCISD during the Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24, 2022. He has been criticized for his role in the response to the shooting. Arredondo had claimed that the gunman couldn't be stopped because the doors to classrooms 111 and 112 were locked. Other evidence did not support his claims.
In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Arredondo said that he didn't think he was the incident commander for law enforcement, while Texas Department of Public Safety officials said that he was and that he made the decision to treat the situation as a "barricaded suspect" instead of an active hostage situation.
Nineteen children and two teachers died in the shooting.
Parents and Uvalde residents have been asking for accountability for the officers involved for over a year – a call that grew in July 2022 when video obtained by KVUE showed officers pacing in the hall for more than an hour rather than immediately acting.
Many of those first responders were seen in the hallway for more than an hour before entering the classroom where the gunman was with victims, in what the U.S. Department of Justice said was a response filled with "cascading errors."
UPDATE: The indictment accuses Uvalde schools chief Pete Arredondo with failing to protect survivors of the shooting, including Khloie Torres, who called 911 during the attack and begged for help.
It also names Samuel Salinas, who “played dead” to survive. https://t.co/YkYVxLgLtX— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) June 28, 2024
The Uvalde City Council released a report that claimed all Uvalde officers were not at fault for the response.
The grand jury was originally convened by local prosecutor Christina Mitchell in January and has spent nearly six months reviewing a trove of evidence in the case, including both oral and written statements – many from the officers who responded to the shooting.
State law prevents jurors from publicly confirming who received a summons or how many were issued. Nine out of the 12 grand jury members are required to vote for indictment before any can be issued.
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