UVALDE, Texas – The former chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) and a police officer have been indicted over the botched law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that resulted in the deaths of 21 people.
On Thursday, a grand jury indicted former chief Pete Arredondo and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales, reports KSTP. Arredondo, who was the onsite commander during the May 24, 2022 mass shooting, faces 10 counts of felony child endangerment/abandonment. Gonzales faces similar charges.
According to the indictment, Arredondo also failed to enforce Uvalde CISD’s active shooter response plan, follow active shooter training protocol, provide keys and tools in a timely fashion to breach the two classrooms where the shooting was taking place, determine if one of the classroom doors was even locked, and establish a command center, reports the Uvalde Leader-News.
Arredondo turned himself into authorities on Thursday and then was released on bond, reports CNN. Gonzalez was scheduled to turn himself in on Friday.
The indictments are the first criminal charges stemming from the Robb Elementary School attack.
Arredondo Fired by Uvalde CISD 2 Years Ago Over Response to Robb Elementary Mass Shooting
Arredondo was fired by Uvalde CISD’s board of trustees in August 2022. Gonzalez was no longer employed by the district as of the beginning of 2023.
The indictments come more than two years after an 18-year-old gunman stormed Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers and injuring 17 others in classrooms 111 and 112. Survivors say the shooter terrorized those who remained alive in the classrooms as they waited for law enforcement to respond. Although there were hundreds of officers who eventually arrived at the scene, police waited 77 minutes before entering classrooms 111 and 112.
A scathing report on the mass shooting from the U.S. Department of Justice said, “The most significant failure was that responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using the resources and equipment that were sufficient to push forward immediately and continuously toward the threat until entry was made into classrooms 111/112 and the threat was eliminated.”
The report also outlined many other failures by law enforcement and the school district that contributed to the tragedy, including a culture of complacency regarding locked-door policies
