Uvalde city officials had not been notified of Arredondo’s decision as of early Saturday afternoon, and CNN has reached out to his attorney for comment. Arredondo, the Uvalde Unified Independent School District police chief since March 2020, was identified by state authorities as the on-scene commander in the mass shooting in which a gunman entered adjacent classrooms on May 24 and killed 19 children and two teachers. Several law enforcement officers arrived at the school within minutes, but allowed the gunman to remain in the classrooms for 77 minutes before they finally entered and killed him, according to a timeline from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which conducts control. of the incident. The long delay runs counter to widespread protocol for active shooter situations that call for police to immediately end the threat, and came even as the children inside repeatedly called 911 and pleaded for help. In a hearing before the Texas Senate last week, DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw called the police response a “gross failure” and placed the sole blame on Arredondo. Arredondo, who has been in law enforcement for nearly 30 years, hasn’t really spoken publicly about making his decision that day, but he told the Texas Tribune in an interview that he didn’t consider himself an on-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 Texas Tribune that he did not instruct the officers to refrain from disrupting the classes. In the wake of the release of the DPS timeline and further details about the law enforcement response, Uvalde CISD Superintendent Hal Harrell placed Arredondo on leave from his position as school police chief on June 22. Arredondo had been elected to the Uvalde City Council on May 7 and was sworn in a week after the May 24 shooting, CNN previously reported. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN’s Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
