The Uvalde School Board just voted unanimously to fire the Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo. This followed a recommendation for the board to do so from the school district superintendent.
The removal of Arredondo comes after three months of outrage over the way law enforcement handled the horrific school shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
There were a total of 19 children killed along with 2 teachers. A total of one hour, 14 minutes, and 8 seconds passed from the time police arrived on the scene until the shooter was killed.
Before the school board vote, a speaker who looked like a child said: “I have messages for Pete Arredondo and all the law enforcement there that day. Turn in your badge and step down. You don’t deserve to wear one.”
Arredondo did not attend the meeting, but he wrote a 17-page statement. His lawyer said that he has faced death threats and did not believe the meeting was safe.
His lawyer, George Hyde, said it was “beyond any doubt that discharge from public employment under circumstances that put the employee’s reputation, honor or integrity at stake gives rise to a liberty interest” under the Constitution’s equal protection clause.
Hyde portrayed Arredondo as a victim of those affected by the tragedy. He said that the community was seeking “more retribution by identifying a new target to focus their grief on, with the belief that it will help them stop hurting,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it won’t,” Hyde said. “Retribution will not bring anyone back; it is a hollow reward, and it will only spread more hurt and pain in an unjust and biased manner.”
A damaging report was released last month by a Texas House committee that faulted “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making” by law enforcement and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
It says that under the district’s active shooter plan, Arredondo would have been the incident commander, but he “did not assume his preassigned responsibility of incident command.”
Arredondo has gone on record saying that he did not consider himself to be the officer in charge.
