The former police chief of the school district in Uvalde, Texas, who oversaw the response to a 2022 elementary school shooting that left 21 people dead, including 19 children, is in custody on charges of child endangerment, he said. the Uvalde prison on Thursday.
Pete Arredondo, 52, was brought in by officers and is accused of abandoning and endangering a child, the arrest said.
The accusation was first reported by San Antonio Express-News.
The Uvalde Jail confirmed Arredondo was being booked into the facility Thursday afternoon.
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice released a 600-page report that stated that poor coordination, training and enforcement of “active shooter” protocols among Uvalde police officers who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022 led to a “failure” in their response.
Instead of continuing to attack the armed 18-year-old – who was locked in a classroom with 33 students and three teachers – the agents retreated after an initial burst of gunfire and did not “immediately and continuously advance to eliminate the threat”, the the department said.
Police officers were wrongly taught that active shooters — or gunmen who federal authorities define as someone who “actively” kills or tries to kill others — “can easily escalate into a hostage crisis,” the report says.
More than 70 minutes passed between the time officers arrived at the school and the time the shooter was confronted and killed. In addition to the 19 students, two teachers were shot dead and another 17 were injured.
Texas state lawmakers previously reached a similar conclusion to the Justice Department, with a 2022 report that said law enforcement and the school district’s response were plagued by “systemic failures and grossly poor decision-making.”
Arredondo, described in the Justice Department report as the de facto commander at the scene, was among the agents who faced administrative sanctions for the response.
Arredondo was fired by the Uvalde school board last year. At the time, his lawyer described the former chief as a victim of the shooting and said his firing was an “illegal and unconstitutional public lynching.”
In a statement, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District said it had no information.
“As we have done and continue to do, we extend our deepest condolences to all who have lost loved ones,” he said. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this challenging situation.”
Berlinda Arreola, whose 10-year-old granddaughter, Amerie Jo Garza, was among those killed in the riot, said Thursday that Arredondo’s arrest is not a “happy moment.”
“It’s still a sad time, there’s nothing to be happy about,” she said. “We are having to relive this nightmare again, knowing they had a chance to save some of our loved ones – maybe all of them.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
