In the aftermath of the shooting killings of 19 students and 2 instructors in Uvalde, Texas, the police chief is on administrative leave.
Arredondo, chief of the school district police force, has been accused of causing delays in engaging the shooter.
The 50-year-old has defended his conduct, saying he didn’t believe he was in control at the time.
As more information about the May 24 assault comes to light, public outrage has grown.
When police arrived at the Robb Elementary School classroom.
Where the attacker had barricaded himself, they waited more than an hour for a team to arrive.
On Wednesday, school district superintendent Hal Harrell said that he had put Mr Arredondo on administrative leave effective immediately.
Citing “the lack of clarity that exists and the undetermined timetable of when I will get the outcomes of the investigations”.
His initial objective was to wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel choices.
But he is “still without information” about what the investigation has uncovered.
Since the shooting last month, Mr. Arredondo has not made any public comments.
This month, he said that he adopted the job of “front-line responder”.
And that another official had assumed authority over all the other aspects of the reaction to the assault.
Something more about the Uvalde shooting
According to him, authorities were unable to open the classroom door for about an hour because they couldn’t locate the key.
However, Texas Public Safety Chief Steven McCraw said on Tuesday.
No evidence is found that police had tried to open the door.
Mr. McCraw said before the state Senate that the shooter could be stoping.
Three minutes after he entered the building if there had been enough police on the spot.
According to Mr. McCraw, Mr. Arredondo had “chosen to prioritize the lives of cops over the lives of children” in his reaction, which he called an “abject failure”.
Another Uvalde mayor on Tuesday criticized the state’s reaction to the shooting.
Saying that the state was providing material selectively to punish local law enforcement and divert attention away from the state’s own response to the incident.
Because of the ambiguity surrounding Mr. Arredondo’s position on the Uvalde City Council.
He would no longer serve as police chief, it was determined.
His appointment to the council came only one week after the shooting at Robb Elementary School.
And he sought a leave of absence from the council at the time.
However, his plea was refused by the council unanimously on Tuesday.
Due to opposition from outraged citizens, some of whom called for his dismissal.
In the words of Amerie Jo Garza’s grandmother, Berlinda Arreola, “Please, please, we’re imploring you, remove this guy out of our life.”
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