Disgraced Uvalde police chief Pete Arredondo resigns from city council weeks after being sworn in
Uvalde police chief Pete Arredondo has stepped down from his position in the City Council just weeks after he was sworn in. Arredondo announced his resignation on Friday, July 1, claiming he was quitting "to minimize further distractions".
"The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward to unite our community once again," Arredondo said in his resignation. Arredondo has been on administrative leave from his school district position since June 22. Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Col. Steven McCraw, said last month that Arredondo, the on-site commander, made "terrible decisions" as the massacre at the Robb Elementary School unfolded on May 24.
READ MORE
Uvalde police chief gets off scot-free after school board REFUSES to punish his cowardice
Arredondo was sworn in as a member of the city council on May 31, without a ceremony. He has been under criticism for his handling of the Robb Elementary school shooting. He was in command during law enforcement’s response to the massacre.
“Out of respect for the families who buried their children today, and who are planning to bury their children in the next few days, no ceremony was held,” Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said in a statement at the time. Arredondo was sworn in soon after the Texas Department of Public Safety said local police departments were not cooperating with its investigation into the mass school shooting.
“Pete Arredondo was duly elected to the City Council,” the mayor said in a statement. “There is nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office. To our knowledge, we are currently not aware of any investigation of Mr. Arredondo."
Arredondo, 50, was slammed after he reportedly held back officers from breaching a classroom at Robb Elementary school and confronting Salvador Ramos, who killed 21 people before he was gunned down. Pete reportedly held officers back because he “believed that it had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject." He apparently thought the children were not at risk.
Police have faced sharp criticism for allegedly failing to stop the shooting quickly enough and come to the victims' rescue on time. In fact, a victim bled to death as she waited for police to come to the rescue, a first-responder allegedly told her mother. The child reportedly waited for nearly an hour for cops to arrive, but eventually succumbed to her injuries possibly because of the delay. The first-responder reportedly claimed her child may have lived if the police had been quicker. It was reported that they did not breach the school for more than 90 minutes after arriving on the campus where Salvador Ramos was ruthlessly killing the children.
A Uvalde native and graduate of Uvalde High School, Arredondo was reportedly elected to the council earlier this month. The officer spent a long time of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in his home city. In 2020, he returned to take the head police job at the school district.
A deadly massacre unfolded at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde on May 24 when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos barricaded himself inside a classroom and slaughtered 19 students and two teachers. Ramos was shot dead by a hero off-duty Customs and Border Protection agent from an elite tactical unit. The agent killed Ramos before his evil rampage could claim more lives. Police officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety, US Customs and Border Protection, and various other local agencies responded to the deadly shooting in the small town located about 60 miles east of the Mexico border on Tuesday, May 24. The agent, a member of CBP’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC), rushed to the school while Ramos was still actively carrying out the massacre. The agent began exchanging rounds with the gunman, who was reportedly barricaded inside a fourth-grade classroom. Law enforcement told NBC that the officer was injured in the attack, but managed to kill the shooter before more innocent lives were taken.