The former school police chief of Uvalde, Texas has been indicted on child endangerment charges over his role in responding to the Robb Elementary School shooting in May 2022.
Pete Arredondo was indicted by a Uvalde grand jury on Thursday, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Adrian Gonzales, a former officer who was also indicted, and Arredondo are facing charges of abandoning/endangering a child, a state felony.
Arredondo and Gonzales are the first law enforcement officials to be charged over what many considered to be a failed response to the massacre on 24 May 2022 that left 19 fourth graders and two educators dead.
On the day of the shooting, Arredondo, who served as chief of of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s police force, was considered to be the incident commander. Gonzales was one of the responding officers on the school police force.
Several agencies responded to the shooting but officials waited more than an hour before entering the classroom where the shooter had barricaded himself. All that time, officers stood in the hallway as the massacre took place. Following the shooting, Arredondo said that he didn’t know that he was in charge of the response.
The Express-News was not able to reach Arredondo for comment and Gonzales hung up on a reporter.
This is a developing story…
