Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo Placed on Administrative Leave

Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo was placed on administrative leave Wednesday, per ABC News. 

News of Arredondo being placed on leave comes nearly one month after the tragic massacre at Robb Elementary School in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. Dr. Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, said he originally intended on waiting until the conclusion of an investigation before making any personnel changes. 

“From the beginning of this horrible event, I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel decisions,” Harrell said. “Today, I am still without details of the investigations being conducted by various agencies. Because of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective on this date.” 

Lt. Mike Hernandez will take over as police chief in the interim.

Arrendondo has repeatedly come under fire for his response to the shooting as the on-scene commander, starting with a report that surfaced days after the incident indicating more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour before entering the classroom that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos had barricaded himself with children still inside. 

In the weeks that followed, we have learned Arrendondo “did not have his radio or comms on him during the incident,” was “convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children” which allowed them “time to organize,” and “never considered himself the scene’s incident commander.” 

Two months before the shooting, the Uvalde school district hosted an all-day “active shooter response” training course that preached the importance of time and forewarned law enforcement officials that those who arrive first “will usually be required to place themselves in harm’s way.” 

Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw said earlier this month that the shooting could have been resolved within three minutes. Meanwhile, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin criticized McCraw during a city council meeting Tuesday for attempting to deflect blame towards his own agency. 

“Col. McCraw has continued to, whether you want to call it lie, leak, mislead or misstate, information in order to distance his own troopers and Rangers from the response,” McLaughlin said. “Every briefing he leaves out the number of his own officers and Rangers that were on-scene that day.” 

The finger-pointing continues to go around as Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez recently filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety for allegedly ignoring requests for records pertaining to the Uvalde shooting. 

Arredondo was placed on leave one day after his request for a leave of absence from future meetings was denied by the Uvalde City Council, of which he is a newly-appointed member.