Re: Uvalde school police chief fired 3 months after botched response to school shooting

[Chicken Tacos]

In article <t1s7m2$383q1$2...@news.freedyn.de>
<governo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Pete Arredondo, the police chief in charge of the law
enforcement response to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary
School in Uvalde, Texas, has been fired.

After a nearly 90-minute termination hearing held behind closed
doors Wednesday evening, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent
School District's board voted unanimously to terminate
Arredondo's contract effective immediately. They also found
there was good cause for him not to receive pay for the time he
was on unpaid administrative leave since July 19.

Arredondo's termination hearing was originally scheduled to take
place a month ago, but that hearing was canceled at the request
of Arredondo's attorney, who told the district the police chief
was entitled to due process.

Arredondo was not present for Wednesday's meeting, saying he was
concerned over his safety, but his attorney released a 17-page
statement in response to the termination hearing.

"Chief Arredondo will not participate in his own illegal and
unconstitutional public lynching and respectfully requests the
Board immediately reinstate him, with all backpay and benefits
and close the complaint as unfounded," read the statement.

The families of the 21 victims of the mass shooting at Robb
Elementary have been demanding Arredondo be fired since news
first broke in late May that the police chief was in charge of
the law enforcement response during the shooting.

Hundreds of officers waited more than an hour to confront the
gunman while children in the 4th grade classroom where he was
holed up called 911.

A Texas House report found there were 376 law enforcement
officers on the scene, including 150 U.S. Border Patrol Agents,
91 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, 25 Uvalde police
officers, 16 sheriff's deputies, and five Uvalde Consolidated
Independent School District officers.

State lawmakers investigating the shooting found law enforcement
failures at all levels. But the school district's active shooter
plan — co-written by Arredondo — called for Arredondo to take
command of all of the officers who responded that day. Yet,
Arredondo maintains he did not know he was the incident
commander.

Arredondo, a Uvalde native, was hired as the school district's
police chief in 2020. Prior to that, he worked at the Webb
County Sheriff's office in South Texas. The San Antonio Express
News reported that Arredondo was demoted from a high-ranking
position in 2014 because he had difficulty getting along with
others in the department.

Despite growing calls for action following the shooting, Uvalde
Superintendent Hal Harrell waited almost two months to recommend
Arredondo's termination.

At a heated school board forum in July, Brett Cross, the uncle
and guardian of Uziyah Garcia, even gave the board a deadline.
Uziyah is one of the 19 children killed in the shooting.

"I'll tell you this. If he's not fired by noon tomorrow, then I
want your resignation and every single one of you board members
because y'all do not give a damn about our children or us,"
Cross said at the time. "Stand with us or against us, because we
ain't going nowhere."

Cross said he doesn't buy Arredondo not showing up to his
termination hearings out of fear for his safety, saying during
Wednesday's public comments that Arredondo was not present "to
face the consequences to his actions."

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/1119340765/uvalde-pete-arredondo-
fired-school-police-chief-robb-elementary