UVALDE, TX - For many law enforcement officers, something didn’t seem right about the response by police in Uvalde, Texas to the 2022 shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now, those feelings have seemingly been confirmed after the former chief of the school district police in Uvalde, along with one other officer for their role in the response to the deadly shooting.
The New York Times reports that former chief Pete Arredondo has been indicted over his actions in the shootings that killed 19 children and two teachers. The charges were the first lodged in connection with the shooting, one of the deadliest school shootings on record.
The indictment was publicized on Friday by the district clerk in Uvalde and accuses Arredondo of failing to recognize the incident as an active shooting, and failing to follow established active shooter protocols and training that resulted in the delay of care for ten children who survived the shooting.
Arredondo faces 10 counts of abandoning and endangering a child and known criminal negligence. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
The indictment alleges that Arredondo, instead of directing officers to immediately enter the school, instead engaged in negotiations with the suspect while he “was engaged in an active shooter incident, delaying the response by law enforcement officers to a gunman who was hunting and shooting a child or children in Room 112 at Robb Elementary School.”
The shooting, which took place on May 24, 2022, also saw failures in the police response far beyond poor decision making, according to a report released on the incident. A second former officer was also indicted over his actions that day, according to two people who were briefed on the grand jury’s decision, both of whom requested anonymity to share the details before they were made public.
CNN reported Friday that the second officer, former school police officer Adrian Gonzales, was arrested Friday afternoon, the Uvalde Leader-News reported, according to Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Brandon McCutchen.
At the time of publication, Gonzales was waiting to be processed, McCutchen said. Earlier Friday, his attorney, Nico Lahood, told CNN in a statement that Gonzalez was planning to surrender to authorities “so the judicial process can move forward.”
Lahoold said he was “working to acquire the evidence the government is relying on” to pursue charges against his client.
“Mr. Gonzalez’ position is he did not violate school district policy or state law. The application of this statute, to law enforcement, under these circumstances is unprecedented in the state of Texas. It will take time to evaluate these allegations and the underlying facts,” LaHood continued.
CNN reached out to the Uvalde County District Court Clerk’s office, however no information on the indictment and charges was immediately available.
Meanwhile, the Uvalde Police Department posted a statement on Facebook Thursday and said the department had yet to be contacted by the District Attorney’s Office, and therefore would withhold comment.
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, mother of 10-year-old victim Lexi Rubio, and Brett Cross, guardian of 10-year-old victim Uziyah, told CNN they were told there would be no additional indictments coming from the grand jury.
“I”m glad two people were indicted,” Mata-Rubio told CNN. “It’s not justice until there are convictions. But I am also aware that there were others at fault that day, and it’s hard to accept that they will not face any consequences.”
“I would be lying if I didn’t say I feel like that’s not enough,” Cross told CNN.
The New York Times said the shooting at the school was subject to overlapping investigations even before the grand jury was convened last winter. The U.S. Justice Department, a committee of the Texas Legislature, and an investigator hired by the City of Uvalde all found serious fault in the actions of officers who responded to the shooting.
DA Chrsitina Mitchell conducted an investigation and presented evidence to the grand jury. The indictment said that Arredondo “by act and omission, intentionally, knowingly, recklessly and with criminal negligence placed Noah Orona” and nine other survivors in “imminent danger of bodily injury, death, physical impairment and mental impairment.”
Jesse Rizo, recently elected to the school board in Uvalde, who is the uncle of one of the victims in the shooting, was pleased with the indictments, but expressed disappointment that the charges did not extend to the death of the children and teachers.
“I hope it sends a message to the people in law enforcement that you just can’t exercise immunity and allow people to get massacred,” Rizo said. “I hope that this is just the beginning and that other officers will get charged.”
Arredondo was among the first officers to arrive at the school just minutes after the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school through an unlocked door and began firing a semi-automatic rifle at children and teachers in a pair of connected classrooms.
The officers, including Arredondo, started moving toward the sound of gunfire, however retreated when Ramos began firing at them. The responding officers remained behind cover even as Ramos continued his deadly assault on the victims, a scenario that shocked people, especially police officers who have been trained in active shooter response since the Columbine shootings in 1999.
Video of officers standing in a hallway or outside the building “without apparent direction, leadership, or urgency” emerged and people were furious. However, Law Enforcement Today published an article earlier this year that offered a different perspective of the incident, including offering facts of the case that were not made known to the public until well after blame was placed on responding officers by the Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw.
Officers from over a dozen agencies responded to the shooting, including tactical units from the Border patrol, as well as agents from the state police and sheriff’s deputies. It was a Border Patrol unit and a deputy sheriff from an adjacent county that entered one of the classrooms and took Ramos out, over 77 minutes after the shootings began.
McGraw blamed Arredondo for the inadequate and painfully slow response to the shooting. McGraw said it went against training officers have received for over 20 years since the above mentioned Columbine incident. Officers are trained to immediately engage active shooters inside a building, especially a school. The shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville is an example of a textbook response to a school shooting.
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a 600-page report and laid much of the blame on Arredondo, writing that his decisions led to a delay in the response. Arredondo made a series of blunders that hampered that response. For example, he left his radio in his car and also said he “didn’t know” he was in charge of the scene. He stated that he evacuated other parts of the building to save more lives.
“Once I realized that was going on, my first thought is that we need to vacate,” Arredondo told investigators a day after the incident. “We have him contained–and I know this is horrible, and I know it’s what our training tells us to do–but we have him contained. There’s probably going to be some deceased in there, but we don’t need any more from out here.”
It was that attitude that caused a lot of anger among first responders, and McGraw said Arredondo made “the wrong decision.” He called the police response to the shooting an “abject failure.”
It did not appear that Arredondo was the one who made the ultimate decision to have Border Patrol agents breach the building and take out the shooter.
CNN reported that in May, families of the victims including those killed or injured settled with the city of Uvalde for $2 million, and announced they are suing 92 officers with the Texas Department of Public SAfety, the school district, and individual employees.
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