Pete Arredondo, the previous faculty police leader criticized for fatal delays within the reaction to a final week’s faculty bloodbath, was once formally sworn in as a Town Council member Tuesday, the place of work of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin introduced, whilst previous within the day state cops mentioned he has failed to reply to their interview requests within the investigation of the college capturing.
The mayor had to begin with postponed the swearing-in rite out of recognize for the sufferers’ households, in line with NBC Information, however as a substitute held it with out the general public rite. Arredondo was once elected to the Uvalde Town Council previous this yr.
The Texas Division of Public Protection mentioned that Arredondo has now not answered to requests from Texas Rangers for a follow-up interview of their investigation of the not on time police reaction at Robb Fundamental College on Would possibly 24, in line with a couple of stories.
A DPS spokesperson advised the Texas Tribune and ABC Information that Arredondo has now not answered to the requests for 2 days.
“The executive of the Uvalde [Consolidated Independent School District] Police equipped an preliminary interview however has now not answered to a request for a follow-up interview with the Texas Rangers that was once made two days in the past,” the DPS mentioned in a observation to the Tribune.
The Uvalde Police Division and the Uvalde faculty district police are nonetheless cooperating with the state investigation, in line with the observation.
Whilst Arredondo hasn’t answered to fresh interview requests, officials from the police division and the college police power had been interviewed through the state police since Friday, in line with New York Occasions reporter J. David Goodman, who spoke to a DPS spokesperson.
“There were interviews with each departments since Friday,” the spokesperson advised the Occasions.
The stories of Arredondo’s absence got here days after Public Protection Director Steven McCraw held a information convention on Friday and admitted that responding officials made a “unsuitable choice” once they not on time coming into the fourth-grade lecture room to prevent the 18-year-old gunman, who killed 19 scholars and two lecturers within the faculty.
McCraw additionally advised journalists on Friday that the scene commander main the reaction to the capturing selected to attend as a result of they wrongly believed the gunman was once barricaded at the back of a locked door and was once now not a possibility to the kids.
Within the hour he was once locked in with the scholars, the gunman opened hearth on the study room.
“With the advantage of hindsight, the place I’m sitting now, in fact it was once now not the proper choice, it was once the unsuitable choice, there was once no excuse for that,” McCraw mentioned.
The scene commander was once later known as Arredondo.
Because the investigation into the police reaction continues, Uvalde cops have introduced various explanations for what transpired all through the reaction to the capturing through law enforcement officials and different regulation enforcement officials.
Even though McCraw mentioned that officials at the scene of the capturing believed the gunman now not posed a possibility, DPS spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez advised CNN on Friday that officials had been reluctant to confront the gunman as a result of “they may’ve been shot.” Olivarez additionally mentioned that they had been looking forward to a tactical staff from the U.S. Border Patrol to confront the shooter.
Moreover, preliminary stories {that a} instructor had propped open an external door on the faculty, which the gunman entered, had been proved false.
Investigators introduced Tuesday that they have got decided a instructor got rid of the rock and closed the propped-open external door as soon as she discovered there was once a shooter arriving on the faculty. Nonetheless, the door didn’t lock, as Travis Considine, leader communications officer for the Texas Division of Public Protection, advised The Related Press.
“She got here again out whilst on her telephone, she heard anyone yell, ‘He has a gun!’, she noticed him leap the fence and that he had a gun, so she ran again inside of,” casting off the rock when she did, Considine advised AP.
“We did test she closed the door. The door didn’t lock,” Considine added. “We all know that a lot, and now investigators are taking a look into why it didn’t lock.”
