UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE CHIEF PUT ON LEAVE AFTER DEADLY SHOOTING

Response by chief, officers remains under investigation

The chief of the school district police force in Uvalde, Texas, was placed on administrative leave after the state’s top police official faulted him for delaying the confrontation with a gunman at Robb Elementary School last month, the school district said Wednesday.

Chief Pete Arredondo was among the first officers to arrive at the school after the shooting began May 24. According to the director of the state police, Steven McCraw, Arredondo was also the incident commander for the response, which McCraw called an “abject failure.”

Though officers from several agencies entered the school minutes after a gunman opened fire in two connected classrooms, they waited more than an hour before confronting and killing him. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed in the attack.

The school district’s superintendent, Hal Harrell, said in a news release that he had planned to “wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel decisions.” But he said he ultimately made the decision to put the chief on leave because “of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results.”

The shooting and the police response is the subject of several investigations, including by McCraw’s Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Justice Department and a special committee of the Texas Legislature.

Lt. Mike Hernandez will take over the role of chief for the department, Harrell said. It has six uniformed members and jurisdiction at the schools in Uvalde.

Arredondo has defended his decision-making, and said this month that he did not believe he was in charge of the response at Robb Elementary School. The law firm representing him declined further comment Wednesday.