He is accused of Pete Arredondo, then in charge of operations, of having delayed deploying the police forces.
Le Monde with AFP
The police chief of the Uvalde school district (Texas), strongly criticized for his slowness against the shooter behind the death of nineteen children and two teachers, last May, was dismissed Wednesday August 24, according to American media.
The Uvalde school district council, near the border with Mexico, voted on Wednesday, according to Texas tribune , unanimously in favor of his eviction, Three months to the day after one of the worst firearm massacres in schools in the United States.
He is accused of Pete Arredondo, then in charge of operations, of having delayed deploying the police forces, who took more than an hour to intervene against the 18 -year -old shooter, finally shot.
m. Arredondo had decided not to be present in this “illegal and unconstitutional public lynching”, in the words of his lawyers in a document published a few hours before the meeting on Wednesday. He asked the district council a full return to his functions as well as the closing of the “unfounded” procedure targeting him. Pete Arredondo had been suspended by the district superintendent on June 22.
a “chaotic” situation and “apathetic” agents
Nearly 400 agents of different services intervened in the Robb Elementary School school on May 24, but sixty-three minutes passed between the arrival of the first police officers and the death of the killer. An “unacceptable” period, according to a Texan parliamentary commission of inquiry, whose conclusions had been revealed in mid-July. Its report points to a “chaotic” situation, an absence of command and “apathetic” agents, while, trapped in the building, desperate children called for help the emergency services.
Pete Arredondo “did not assume his responsibility as commander” and he made analysis errors because he did not have all the information, according to the Commission. The director of public security of Texas, Steven McCraw, had described “absolute failure” the response of the police.
Following the massacre of Uvalde and the other killings who left the country in shock, the US Congress spent the end of June a law establishing new limitations on firearms, the most important in almost thirty years , but well below what President Joe Biden wanted