Texas School Shooting: Police Chief Says He's Cooperating with Probe

By Jorge A. Vela

Source Laredo Morning Times, Texas

Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, a former Laredo officer, has been the center of attention since reports of an inadequate response dealing with the active shooter at Robb Elementary that killed 21 individuals last week.

After reports leaked that Arredondo and Uvalde police were no longer cooperating with the state in its investigation, Arredondo spoke publicly to CNN on Wednesday.

Arredondo stated that he was still cooperating with the Texas Department of Public Safety to assist in their case.

"I am in contact with DPS every day," Arredondo said to the network.

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In a separate short interview with CNN, the police chief also stated that at the moment he did not feel it was time to discuss what happened, as the families continue to mourn.

"We're going to be respectful to the families," Arredondo said. "We're going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we'll do that, obviously."

Arredondo is a former Laredoan who worked for UISD and the Webb County Sheriff's Office. He also was a recently-elected Uvalde city councilmember. He allegedly ordered law enforcement to wait for reinforcements and to not engage the shooter for close to an hour.

Arredondo's name came to the forefront after last week DPS Director Steve McCraw identified him as the incident commander of the situation. The DPS director stated that it was a mistake to listen to his orders.

According to McCraw, the decision to not engage was due to Arredondo believing the situation had changed from an active shooter situation — someone is shooting people to kill them — into a barricaded shooter situation — the shooter is alone in a room without any survivors left in it.

Unfortunately, the idea that there were no more survivors was wrong, as several students did survive the direct attack, and some also even called 9-1-1 while inside the classroom. The shooter actually shot one of the students who tried to call the police for help.

Arredondo is originally from the Uvalde area but has also held several positions in Laredo and Webb County.

Prior to his job in Uvalde, he worked in Laredo as a police captain for United Independent School District. Arredondo also worked in the Webb County Sheriff Department's office as well an administrator, commander, assistant chief and administrative assistant. Before working in Laredo, Arredondo served in Uvalde as part of the local law enforcement presence beginning in 1993 when he held multiple roles, from dispatcher all the way up to assistant chief of the police.

Sworn into Office

In the middle of the controversy, Arredondo was sworn in to his new District III councilmember position during a low-key ceremony on Tuesday.

The ceremony was performed without any media present, as council stated it wanted to focus all of its attention on the ongoing needs of the impacted families. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin confirmed the swearing in occurred.

"Out of respect for the families who buried their children today and who are planning to bury their children in the next few days, no ceremony was held," McLaughlin said in a written statement.

CNN reported the mayor said in his written statement that he was "duly elected" and that there is "nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office."

"To our knowledge, we are currently not aware of any investigation of Mr. Arredondo," McLaughlin added.

In describing the event, Arredondo said the ceremony was "a private thing" out of respect for the families.

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