Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Fails in Bid to Avoid Prosecution

A judge on Thursday rejected a motion to dismiss charges against the former police chief of the Uvalde, Texas, school district, who is under scrutiny for his role in the delayed response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.https://wordpress.com/

In one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in two adjacent classrooms.

The defense team for Pete Arredondo, the former police chief, had requested the dismissal of 10 child endangerment charges that prosecutors had filed against him. Arredondo, who was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene, is widely seen as the incident commander, a role he denies having played.

Arredondo was terminated from his position as chief of the district’s small police force following the shooting. The gunman spent more than an hour barricaded in a fourth-grade classroom, while numerous officers waited for backup, shields, and keys to the classroom. It was later revealed that the door was unlocked.

In court, Arredondo’s lawyer, Matthew Hefti, argued that the primary threat to the victims was the gunman himself. He stated that his client had acted within his responsibilities by calling for a tactical team and assisting the escape of surviving students through windows.

“He did not put the children in harm’s way,” Hefti told Judge Sid Harle.

However, special prosecutor Bill Turner disagreed, stating that Arredondo failed to take swift action to save lives and instead ordered officers to “stand down.”

“The state is charging Pete Arredondo for acting recklessly,” Turner said.

The judge dismissed the motion to drop the charges and scheduled a tentative trial date for next October.

Some family members expressed relief that the case was progressing. Dora Mendoza, whose 10-year-old granddaughter, Amerie Jo Garza, was killed in the shooting, said, “I was praying for our angels, please, please, don’t quash the charges. We want justice and a trial to take place.”

Several local, state, and federal investigations have concluded that a series of failures in leadership, tactics, and training contributed to the widely criticized law enforcement response.

Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, another officer involved that day, were indicted by the Uvalde district attorney in June. Investigators found that the most significant failure came when responding officers treated the incident as a barricaded standoff, rather than an active shooter situation, which would have required immediate intervention.

Initially, the top state police official, Steven McCraw, placed much of the blame on Arredondo. However, it later emerged that state police officers also failed to confront the gunman. Many of the officials responsible for the response that day have either been fired or retired, but only Arredondo and Gonzales face criminal charges.

Gonzales, who is accused of failing to confront the gunman despite knowing his location, faces 29 counts of child abandonment and endangerment.

Nico LaHood, Gonzales’s attorney, stated he would seek to have the trial moved out of Uvalde, a small town of around 15,000 people. “They have to live in the community where this tragedy happened, where everybody knows everybody,” LaHood said.