Beleaguered Uvalde schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo has resigned from the Uvalde City Council.
Arredondo notified the Uvalde Leader-News of his resignation Friday.
The police chief had been sworn onto the City Council in May, after winning a city election earlier that month, before the shooting.
“After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3.”
“The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions.”
“I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde,” said Arredondo, police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
Critics of the Robb Elementary School shooting response have pointed to Arredondo as the on-scene commander of the response.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McGraw has accused Arredondo of ordering police at the scene to refrain from immediately rushing a classroom the shooter was barricaded in, treating the situation as a hostage situation rather than an active shooting.
Was this the right thing for Arredondo to do?
He says the decision to wait cost lives, as shooting victims were left to bleed out while law enforcement waited in a hallway.
However, Arredondo maintains that he wasn’t the commander of the response.
Arredondo has defended his conduct during the shooting, arguing that critics of the Uvalde Police Department don’t know the full story.
Abject failure.
The words used by Texas DPS Director Steve McGraw in a scathing evisceration of the police response in #Uvalde, specifically, the on-scene commander.
This is during testimony for special called Texas Senate committee meeting. pic.twitter.com/FUJSaDFvq9
— Chris Sadeghi (@chrissadeghi) June 21, 2022
Ultimately, an off-duty Border Patrol agent who refused to stand down rushed and neutralized the gunman.
Community members frustrated with Arredondo had sought his expulsion from the City Council. The council rejected a request from the school police chief for a leave of absence, and may have ruled that he vacated his seat upon missing three meetings. He’s on administrative leave from his police job.
The Robb Elementary School shooting was one of the deadliest in American history, and the deadliest school shooting ever to occur in Texas.
Nineteen students were killed, as well as two teachers.
