Uvalde Chief Resigns From City Council 07/03 08:41

   

   (AP) -- The Uvalde school district's police chief has stepped down from his 
position in the City Council just weeks after being sworn in following 
allegations that he erred in his response to the mass shooting at Robb 
Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

   Chief Pete Arredondo said in a letter dated Friday that he has decided to 
step down for the good of the city and "to minimize further distractions." He 
was elected to the council on May 7 and was sworn in on May 31, just a week 
after the massacre, in a closed-door ceremony.

   "The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move 
forward to unite our community once again," Arredondo said in his resignation, 
first reported by the Uvalde Leader-News.

   Arredondo, who has been on administrative leave from his school district 
position since June 22, has declined repeated requests for comment from The 
Associated Press. His attorney, George Hyde, did not immediately respond to 
emailed requests for comment Saturday.

   On June 21, the City Council voted unanimously to deny Arredondo a leave of 
absence from appearing at public meetings. Relatives of the shooting victims 
had pleaded with city leaders to fire him.

   The Uvalde City Council released Arredondo's resignation letter Saturday, 
after city officials received notification of his intent to step down via 
email, but did not comment further.

   Representatives of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin have not responded to AP's 
requests for comment.

   Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told 
a state Senate hearing last month that Arredondo -- the on-site commander -- 
made "terrible decisions" as the massacre unfolded on May 24 , and that the 
police response was an "abject failure."

   Three minutes after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school, 
sufficient armed law enforcement were on scene to stop the gunman, McCraw 
testified. Yet police officers armed with rifles stood and waited in a school 
hallway for more than an hour while the gunman carried out the massacre. The 
classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication 
officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside, McCraw said.

   McCraw has said parents begged police outside the school to move in and 
students inside the classroom repeatedly pleaded with 911 operators for help 
while more than a dozen officers waited in a hallway. Officers from other 
agencies urged Arredondo to let them move in because children were in danger.

   "The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering room 
111 and 112 was the on-scene commander who decided to place the lives of 
officers before the lives of children," McCraw said.

   Arredondo has tried to defend his actions, telling the Texas Tribune that he 
didn't consider himself the commander in charge of operations and that he 
assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response. He said 
he didn't have his police and campus radios but that he used his cellphone to 
call for tactical gear, a sniper and the classroom keys.

   It's still not clear why it took so long for police to enter the classroom, 
how they communicated with each other during the attack, and what their body 
cameras show.

   Officials have declined to release more details, citing the investigation.

   Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and has spent much of his nearly 30-year 
career in law enforcement in the city.