Uvalde, Texas – A former school district police chief who was in charge during a tragic elementary school shooting in 2022, resulting in the deaths of 21 individuals, including 19 children, finds himself in police custody on a child endangerment charge, as confirmed by the Uvalde jail on Thursday.
Pete Arredondo, 52, was taken into custody by law enforcement officers on allegations of abandoning and endangering a child, according to the jail’s statement. The charge was initially reported by the San Antonio Express-News and was later confirmed when Arredondo was booked into the Uvalde facility.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department released a comprehensive 600-page report highlighting the shortcomings in coordination, training, and execution of active shooter protocols by Uvalde officers responding to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022. The report pointed out a failure in the officers’ response as they failed to engage the gunman immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat.
Tragically, more than 70 minutes passed from the officers’ arrival at the school until the gunman was confronted and killed, resulting in the loss of 19 students, two teachers, and injuries to 17 others. State lawmakers in Texas had also previously criticized the law enforcement and school district’s response, citing systemic failures and poor decision-making.
Arredondo, described as the de facto commander at the scene in the Justice Department’s report, had faced administrative punishment over the botched response. He was subsequently dismissed by the Uvalde school board, with his firing met with legal challenges.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District expressed condolences to the families affected by the tragedy but refrained from providing any specific information regarding the ongoing situation. Meanwhile, community members continue to grapple with the aftermath of the tragic event, expressing mixed emotions over Arredondo’s arrest and the reopening of painful wounds. Berlinda Arreola, who lost her granddaughter in the massacre, expressed sadness over the situation, emphasizing the pain of reliving the traumatic experience and the lost opportunity to potentially save more lives during the tragedy.
