Uvalde police chief fired months after overseeing disastrous response to school massacre

The school board of Uvalde, Texas, voted unanimously on Wednesday to fire school police chief Pete Arredondo, following the disastrous police response to a mass shooting on campus in May.

The decision was met with cheers from assembled community members at a school board meeting on Wednesday evening.

On 24 May, the chief helped oversee the chaotic law enforcement response to the campus shooting where 21 people were killed, including 19 students, the second worst school shooting in US history.

Mr Arredondo, who state officials said was the incident commander during the response, is the first of potentially many officers to be fired for the police lapses during the shooting.

Texas lawmakers said in a July report the Uvalde massacre was worsened by a series of “systemic failures” and “egregious” decisions by police.

State officials have called Mr Arredondo’s leadership in particular an “abject failure”, pointing to how a group of heavily armed officers waited more than an hour before entering a classroom and killing gunman Salvador Ramos.

The Independent has contacted Mr Arredondo for comment.

The police officer was not present at the school board meeting where the decision was made.

In a statement earlier in the day, his attorney called the process a public “lynching” and an “illegal charade strategically designed to infringe on Chief Arredondo’s ability to speak freely to clear his name.”

The former chief also denied being incident commander during the shooting, said he had concerns for his safety at the meeting, and blasted school officials for what he claimed was a breach of the formal process for ending his employment.

He faulted school officials for allegedly ignoring his previous recommendations for security upgrades before the shooting, and said other law enforcement officials should’ve assumed command because the shooting started off campus at the gunman’s home, where he wounded his grandmother.

“The incident command allegations are patently false and are intended to distract and shift blame,” Mr Arredondo’s attorney said in his statement.

The Independent has contacted the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District for comment.

Community members have been calling for Mr Arredondo’s firing for months since the massacre.

“If law enforcement’s job is to protect and serve, why didn’t they protect and serve my friends?” a girl named Kaitlin Gonzalez told school board members during a public comment session at the Wednesday meeting.

“Turn in your badge and step down,” she added, referring to Mr Arredondo. “You don’t deserve to wear one.”

The chief had been on unpaid administrative leave from the school police department since 22 June, and resigned his position on the city council in early July. A decision by the council regarding Mr Arredondo’s contract had been on the school board’s agenda since July, but was postponed twice at the request of the chief’s attorney.

He can appeal his termination.

State and federal officials continue to investigate the law enforcement response to the shooting.

This week, Uvalde families filed a $27bn lawsuit against the Uvalde school district, multiple law enforcement agencies, a gun store, and a gunmaker tied to the shooting.