Uvalde, Texas school board fires police chief over response to Robb Elementary School shooting that killed 19 students
- Chief Pete Arredondo is first officer dismissed over hesitant and fumbling law enforcement response to one of the worst school shootings in US history
- Arredondo faced criticism since the massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach classroom where gunman carried out attack
The Uvalde school district’s embattled police chief was fired on Wednesday following allegations that he made several critical mistakes during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s board of trustees said it voted unanimously to dismiss police Chief Pete Arredondo.
Arredondo is the first officer dismissed over the hesitant and fumbling law enforcement response to one of the worst school shootings in US history. Only one other officer – Uvalde Police Department Lieutenant Mariano Pargas, who was the city’s acting police chief on the day of massacre – is known to have been placed on leave for their actions during the shooting.
Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has faced blistering criticism since the May 24 massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach the classroom where an 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack. Colonel Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo was in charge of the law enforcement response to the attack.
Texas state lawmakers also slammed Arredondo in a report last month, saying he “did not assume his preassigned responsibility of incident command” and made analytical errors because he did not have all the necessary information.