Former acting Uvalde CISD police chief, school district police officer indicted on charges
Uvalde law enforcement
(TEXAS TRIBUNE) – In a 30-page indictment released Friday, prosecutors in Uvalde laid out 10 counts of child endangerment against former Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was among the first senior-ranking police officials to respond to the Robb Elementary School shooting.
The indictment accuses him of placing 10 children who survived the shooting in imminent danger by failing to heed training and giving directions that delayed the police response. The May 22, 2022 shooting, left 19 children and two teachers dead before Border Patrol agents killed the shooter.
The alleged failures by Arredondo include not identifying the situation as an active shooting after hearing shots fired and learning that a teacher and students had been wounded – Arredondo instead called for a SWAT team and ordered officers to evacuate a wing of the school – and not setting up a command center or enacting a response plan, which the indictment said paralyzed the response as law enforcement officers from local to federal agencies arrived at the school with no direction.