The former school police chief of Uvalde, Texas had his mugshot released after he was indicted on child endangerment charges for his role in responding to the mass shooting in May 2022.
Pete Arredondo was pictured in his booking photo in an orange jumpsuit, along with Adrian Gonzales, a former district officer. Police released Arredondo and Gonzales’ booking photos on Friday.
Arredondo was indicted by a Uvalde grand jury, according to the San Antonio Express-News on Thursday. He is facing charges of abandoning/endangering a child, a state felony, alongside Gonzales. It’s not clear when the indictment took place.
Arredondo and Gonzales are the first law enforcement officials to be charged in what is widely considered to be a failed response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School on May 24 2022 which left 19 fourth graders and two teachers dead.
On the day of the shooting, Arredondo, who served as chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s police force, was considered to be the incident commander. Gonzales was one of the responding officers on the school police force.
At least two dozen state, local and federal agencies and nearly 400 officers responded to the shooting. But law enforcement waited 77 minutes before entering the classroom where the shooter had barricaded himself. All that time, officers stood in the hallway as the massacre took place.
Following the shooting, Arredondo said that he didn’t know that he was in charge of the response.
The Express-News was not able to reach Arredondo for comment and Gonzales hung up on a reporter.
In January, the Department of Justice released a critical incident review of the shooting that found that there was a delayed response in confronting the assailant. Police doctrine states that officers should immediately act to confront an active shooter.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “Had law enforcement followed generally accepted practices in an active-shooter situation and gone right after the shooter to stop him, lives would have been saved, and people would have survived.”
The 18-year-old shooter started his rampage at the school around 11.33am. Armed with a semiautomatic rifle, he walked into the school’s west building and went to classrooms 111 and 112, which were interconnected. He fired more than 100 rounds in two and a half minutes.
The indicted officials were some of the first law enforcement officers to arrive at the scene. As officers went to approach the classrooms, the shooter fired several shots through the door and wall. One of the responding officers was shot in the head and arm, another was hit in the ear.
Law enforcement called for backup, bullet0proof vests and other protective equipment. About 20 minutes after the shooting began, Arredondo made the call not to enter the classrooms. Instead, police worked to clear the building as they planned to negotiate with the shooter.
According to an investigation into the shooting conducted by the city, Uvalde police officers had wanted to enter the classrooms once they had protective shields but Arredondo’s decision “overrode” that action, the Express-News reported.
Even though Arredondo served as the school police chief, all of the other agencies had to defer to his orders due to his incident command position.
Arredondo was eventually fired from his post and the entire school police force was replaced by the district. Families of the victims have long campaigned for charges to be brought against Arredondo for his actions.
