The announcement of the meeting came a day after district officials informed Arredondo that the school board plans to meet Saturday to decide his fate, according to a source close to the discussions. The source told CNN the board is expected to vote to fire Arredondo, who was placed on administrative leave last month. CNN reached out to Arredondo’s attorney and did not receive a response. Arredondo, who has been the school district’s police chief since March 2020, was one of nearly 400 officers who responded to the shooting in which a gunman entered adjacent classrooms inside the Texas school on May 24. Officers began arriving at the school within minutes, but allowed the gunman to remain in classrooms for 77 minutes before they entered and killed him, according to a timeline from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). By the time the police forced their way in, 19 children and two teachers were dead. The long delay goes against the widely taught protocol for active shooter situations that calls for police to immediately end the threat and came even as the children inside repeatedly called 911 and begged for help. In a hearing before the Texas Senate last month, DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw called the police response a “gross failure.” He placed the sole blame for the failure on Arredondo, whom officials have identified as the on-scene commander, saying he “decided to put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children.” However, Arredondo did not consider himself the commander of the incident, according to the preliminary report of a Texas investigative commission. “My approach and my thinking corresponded to being a police officer. And I didn’t label myself that way,” Arredondo said in the investigative report. Instead, the report placed the blame more broadly, saying: “The entirety of law enforcement and their training, preparation and response share systemic responsibility for many missed opportunities.” He also noted that others could have taken over. Advanced law enforcement rapid response training “teaches that any law enforcement officer can take command, that someone must take command, and that an incident commander can transfer responsibility as an incident develops,” the report said. “This did not happen at Robb Elementary, and the lack of effective incident management is a major factor that caused other vital measures to be canceled.”
Arredondo was placed on leave last month
In the wake of intense criticism, Uvalde School District Superintendent Hal Harrell placed Arredondo on leave as school police chief on June 22. “Due to 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 this date,” Harrell wrote in the statement. Arredondo, who has worked in law enforcement for nearly 30 years, hasn’t really spoken publicly about his decision making on the day of the massacre, but he told the Texas Tribune and the House Committee that he doesn’t consider himself on the scene. . commander. However, at least one of the responding officers expressed the belief that Arredondo was leading the law enforcement response inside the school, telling others that “the chief is in charge,” according to the DPS timeline. Arredondo also told the Tribune that he did not instruct the officers to refrain from disrupting the classes. Separately, Arredondo resigned from his seat on the Uvalde City Council in early July, according to a resignation letter he sent to the city. “After much consideration, it is in the best interest of the community that he resign as a City Council member for District 3 to minimize further distractions,” Arredondo said in the letter. “The Mayor, City Council and City Staff must continue to move forward to bring our community together once again.”
