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Uvalde school board fires police Chief Pete Arredondo after mass shooting
CBS News ^ | August 24, 2022 | CBS News Staff

Posted on 08/24/2022 9:11:14 PM PDT by Widget Jr

The Uvalde school district's embattled police chief was fired 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.

In a unanimous vote that arrived after months of angry calls for his ouster, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's board of trustees fired Pete Arredondo in an auditorium of parents and survivors of the May 24 massacre. His ouster came three months to the day after one of the deadliest classroom shootings in U.S. history.

Cheers from the crowd followed the vote, and some parents walked out in tears.

"Coward!" parents yelled in a Uvalde auditorium as the meeting got underway.

Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has come under the most intense scrutiny of the nearly 400 officers who rushed to school but waited more than an hour to confront the 18-year-old gunman in a fourth-grade classroom.

Most notably, Arredondo was criticized for not ordering officers to act sooner. Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo was in charge of the law enforcement response to the attack.

Arredondo was not in attendance with his career on the line.

Instead, minutes before the meeting of the Uvalde school board got underway, Arredondo's attorney released a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief's fullest defense to date of his actions. Over 17 defiant pages, Arredondo is not the fumbling school police chief who a damning state investigation blamed for not taking command and wasted time by looking for keys to a likely unlocked door, but a brave officer whose level-headed decisions saved the lives of other students.

It alleges that Arrendondo warned the district about a variety of security issues in the schools a year before the shooting and asserted he wasn't in charge of the scene. The letter also accused Uvalde school officials of putting his safety at risk by not letting him carry a weapon to the school board meeting, citing "legitimate risks of harm to the public and to Chief Arredondo."

"Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn't reach in time," Hyde wrote.

Uvalde school officials have been under mounting pressure from victims' families and members of the community, many of whom have called for Arredondo's termination. Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fire Arredondo in July but postponed the decision at the request of the police chief's attorney.

Among those at the meeting was Ruben Torres, father of Chloe Torres, who survived the shooting in room 112 of the school. He said that as a former Marine, he took an oath that he faithfully executed willingly, and did not understand why officers did not take action when leadership failed.

"Right now, being young, she is having a hard time handling this horrific event," Torres said.

Arredondo is the first officer dismissed over the hesitant and fumbling law enforcement response to the May 24 tragedy. Only one other officer — Uvalde Police Department Lt. 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.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which had more than 90 state troopers at the scene, has also launched an internal investigation into the response by state police.

School officials have said the campus at Robb Elementary will no longer be used. Instead, campuses elsewhere in Uvalde will serve as temporary classrooms for elementary school students, not all of whom are willing to return to school in-person following the shooting.

School officials say a virtual academy will be offered for students. The district has not said how many students will attend virtually, but a new state law passed last year in Texas following the pandemic limits the number of eligible students receiving remote instruction to "10% of all enrolled students within a given school system."

Schools can seek a waiver to exceed the limit but Uvalde has not done so, according to Melissa Holmes, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

New measures to improve school safety in Uvalde include "8-foot, non-scalable perimeter fencing" at elementary, middle and high school campuses, according to the school district. Officials say they have also installed additional security cameras, upgraded locks, enhanced training for district staff and improving communication.

However, according to the district's own progress reports, as of Tuesday no fencing had been erected at six of the eight campuses where it was planned, and cameras had only been installed at the high school. Some progress had been made on locks at three of eight campuses, and communication improvement was marked as half complete for each campus.

Uvalde CISD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 1thinblueline; 2backtheblue; arredondo; banglist; braking; education; police; sidebarabuse; texas; texascops; tldr; ulvade
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To: Widget Jr

A gutless coward with no honor behaves like one all the way to the bitter end. I’m sure lawsuits against the board and city for unlawful termination are next.


41 posted on 08/25/2022 5:33:31 AM PDT by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

Here was his official title: Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police.


42 posted on 08/25/2022 5:38:09 AM PDT by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: FreedomPoster
It is quite common for school systems to have their own police force, at least here in GA. Whether that is a good idea is another question. In some cases it seems that it has led to a system that covers up criminal acts done on school property.

It probably also leads to complacency on the part of the cops. For the most part, nothing happens there, and when it does, their reflexes have been dulled by too much standing around time.

43 posted on 08/25/2022 6:27:24 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte (11/3-11/4/2020 - The USA became a banana republic.)
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To: wardaddy

BINGO! When does the School Board even have the power to fire the Chief of Police? Strange hierarchy there.


44 posted on 08/25/2022 6:31:59 AM PDT by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: Widget Jr

In a Perfect World, this would be the end of the story.

Look for him to be picked up by some Socialist Democrat-run city - NEAR YOU!

*SPIT*


45 posted on 08/25/2022 7:07:12 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: FreedomPoster

300!!!!???? All 300 should be fired. Revenge is likely coming.


46 posted on 08/25/2022 7:14:59 AM PDT by goodnesswins (The Chinese are teaching calculus to their 3rd graders while ours are trying to pick a pronoun.)
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To: marktwain

“In leadership, this is especially dangerous, because they can prevent others from acting.”

What such folks forget is that ordering others not to act is “acting” and is “decision making”.

At that point they are just hoping that someone higher in authority can make the decisions for them.

That is often the reason for the delay—the “leader” is trying to kick the decision “upstairs”.


47 posted on 08/25/2022 7:17:27 AM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: SgtHooper; wardaddy

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.37.htm

Sec. 37.081. SCHOOL DISTRICT PEACE OFFICERS, SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS, AND SECURITY PERSONNEL. (a) The board of trustees of any school district may employ security personnel, enter into a memorandum of understanding with a local law enforcement agency for the provision of school resource officers, and commission peace officers to carry out this subchapter. If a board of trustees authorizes a person employed as security personnel to carry a weapon, the person must be a commissioned peace officer. The jurisdiction of a peace officer, a school resource officer, or security personnel under this section shall be determined by the board of trustees and may include all territory in the boundaries of the school district and all property outside the boundaries of the district that is owned, leased, or rented by or otherwise under the control of the school district and the board of trustees that employ the peace officer or security personnel or that enter into a memorandum of understanding for the provision of a school resource officer.


48 posted on 08/25/2022 7:17:43 AM PDT by abb
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To: abb

I live in a county with I think 350-400,000 folks one of nashvilles nine metro counties

We us county deputies who are assigned

Often women but not always


49 posted on 08/25/2022 8:43:33 AM PDT by wardaddy (Lawyers guns and money……I lived it…. Now I'm old…. I have wonderful children)
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To: Widget Jr; Wonder Warthog
 
 
17 pages of hysterics. Seems to me it's prerequisite language for suing to get his job back. That'd be the height of stupid there. Doubt he'd live long enough to collect his first paycheck.
 
https://www.scribd.com/document/588953698/8-24-22-Attorney-Statement
 
 

50 posted on 08/25/2022 8:44:14 AM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: Widget Jr

“Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn’t reach in time.”

Wow.

That is some serious world record, mind numbing hubris right there.

Wow.


51 posted on 08/25/2022 10:11:35 AM PDT by Jotmo (Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword." has clearly never been stabbed to death.)
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To: lapsus calami

Thanks for link....


52 posted on 08/25/2022 12:34:22 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog (Not Responding to Seagull Snark)
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To: Widget Jr

Of course he needed to be fired. Accountability has become a joke in the public sector.


53 posted on 08/25/2022 12:36:54 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Widget Jr
"Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn't reach in time," Hyde wrote.

What utter gaslighting.

54 posted on 08/25/2022 12:45:11 PM PDT by Lazamataz (The firearms I own today, are the firearms I will die with. How I die will be up to them.)
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To: lightman
I’m surprised he hasn’t eaten his six.

Liberals never do.

Guarenteed he gets a Police Chief job somewhere in California or New York or Maryland.

55 posted on 08/25/2022 12:46:26 PM PDT by Lazamataz (The firearms I own today, are the firearms I will die with. How I die will be up to them.)
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To: Lazamataz

Disgusting


56 posted on 08/25/2022 12:52:43 PM PDT by MD Expat in PA (No. I am not a doctor nor have I ever played one on TV. The MD in my screen name stands for Maryland)
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To: Widget Jr

That just makes it worse. He claims he did nothing wrong, then goes into hiding, then uses his lawyer to say he may not have been perfect.


57 posted on 08/25/2022 12:55:40 PM PDT by matt04 ( )
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To: lapsus calami
#50. Arredondo’s lawyer represents his client all right. 17 pages of self-centered reality denial is not going to get his job back. I already feel sorry for all the other lawyers who will have to spend years of their lives dealing with him.
58 posted on 08/25/2022 1:42:42 PM PDT by Widget Jr (Disobey your television.)
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To: Widget Jr
Arredondo's attorney released a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief's fullest defense to date of his actions. Over 17 defiant pages, Arredondo is not the fumbling school police chief who a damning state investigation blamed for not taking command and wasted time by looking for keys to a likely unlocked door, but a brave officer whose level-headed decisions saved the lives of other students.

This fat-assed Useless turd of a "cop" needs to line up next to freaking Asshat baldwin so they can all scream not my fault in unison. 2 pathetic Wastes of flesh exchanging air and being total fornicating Jackasses that are of absolutely no use to the Human Race.

59 posted on 08/25/2022 4:08:16 PM PDT by mabarker1 ( (Congress- the opposite of PROGRESS!!! A fraud, a hypocrite, a liar. I'm a member of Congress !7)
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