Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo charged with child endangerment after Robb Elementary shooting that killed 21

THE former school district police chief in Uvalde, Texas, has been charged with child endangerment over officers’ response to the 2022 shooting that left 21 people dead, including 19 elementary schoolers.

Pedro “Pete” Arredondo , 52, was taken into custody at the Uvalde County jail on Thursday and is accused of abandoning and endangering a child individual, officials said.

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He turned himself in at the jail to be booked on 10 counts of child endangerment, reported the San Antonio Express-News .

Former police officer Adrian Gonzales was charged in a separate indictment with 29 counts of child endangerment – one for each child who was killed and one for each of the 10 survivors who have suffered physical or psychological injuries.

State Senator Roland Gutierrez said he was upset that only Arredondo and Gonzales were indicted, pointing out that nearly 400 law enforcement officers from several agencies responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.

“If they’re going to indict those two officers, they need to indict the 13 DPS troopers in that hallway,” Gutierrez told the outlet.

“That’s very disturbing to me.”

Ana Rodriguez, whose 10-year-old daughter, Maite, died in the shooting said the indictments were a step forward but “this is simply not enough.”

“There were numerous officers with knowledge that it was an active shooter situation. Others need to also be held accountable for their inaction.”

Don McLaughlin Jr., who was Uvalde’s mayor at the time of the shooting, shared similar sentiments.

“If you’re going to indict those (two) officers, then we need to look at the other agencies that had officers there because all these reports seem to gloss over their involvement,” he said.

BOMBSHELL REPORT

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice released a 600-page report stating the Uvalde police officers failed to adequately respond to the shooting.

The report stated that officers did not “push forward immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat” after initially engaging in gunfire with 18-year-old Salvador Ramos .

Ramos was locked inside a classroom with 33 students and three teachers , according to the report.

More than 70 minutes passed between the time officers first arrived at the school and when Ramos was confronted and killed.

Along with the 19 students, two teachers were fatally shot and 17 others were injured.

“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,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland at the time.

In 2022, Texas lawmakers similarly concluded that law enforcement and the school district had “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making,” in a report.

The report found a lack of clear leadership among the 376 officers at the scene, resulting in an “overall lackadaisical approach.”

“The scene was chaotic, without any person obviously in charge or directing the law enforcement response,” read the report.

An investigation conducted by the city of Uvalde found that police officers wanted to storm the classroom as soon as they had bulletproof shields, however, Arredondo announced that they would instead clear the rest of the building and try to negotiate with Ramos.

The school police force had jurisdiction over the incident and Arredondo was its chief, meaning that other agencies had to defer to his decisions.

Because of this, Arredondo’s announcement overrode plans to engage with Ramos.

Months after the tragedy, the school district fired Arredondo and replaced the entire school police force.

Reuters

AFP