The head of the Uvalde, Texas, school police force quit his City Council seat amid criticism over his response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Pete Arredondo was elected to Uvalde’s City Council a few weeks before the May 24 shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, plunging the small town into grief.
Mr Arredondo said in a resignation letter to the city government he was stepping down “to minimize further distractions” in Uvalde. His resignation plans were first reported by the Uvalde Leader-News.
A top state law enforcement official said last month that Mr Arredondo, the onsite commander during the shooting, made “terrible decisions” and officers at the scene lacked sufficient training, costing valuable time during which lives might have been saved.
Uvalde’s government said in a statement that resigning was “the right thing to do” for Mr Arredondo.
Mr Arredondo has said he never considered himself incident commander and that he did not order police to hold back on breaching the building.
Outrage over the massacre helped galvanise support in the US Congress for the first major federal gun reform in nearly three decades, which President Joe Biden signed into law on June 25.
Before announcing his plans to resign from his City Council seat, Mr Arredondo was already at risk of being removed from office after missing several council meetings. The city’s school district last month placed him on administrative leave from his duties as police chief.
Many parents and relatives of children and staff at Robb Elementary School have expressed anger over delays in police action after the gunman entered the school.
As many as 19 officers waited for more than an hour in a hallway before a US Border Patrol-led tactical team finally made entry and killed the 18-year-old gunman.
A state official said last month that police wasted time searching for a key to the classroom where the shooting occurred, but that the door that needed opening was not locked.
- New Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick known as reformer
- Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn says he’ll retire
- Anti-Semitic Intruders Target Online Meetings Of Winnetka Schools
- Priti Patel FINALLY surfaces in radio interview to slap down overzealous police after they threaten to check people's shopping for 'non-essential' items and set up roadblocks to ensure motorists only make legitimate trips during coronavirus lockdown
- Chicago woman, 27, is shot dead while waiting in line outside a 7-11 while social distancing during the city's deadliest day of gun violence in two years
- California police detective, 43, dies of coronavirus after she was twice denied a test because she had no underlying health condition
- Police urge people to maintain physical distancing in UK parks
- Federal education minister orders independent schools to reopen for term two
- Health departments give police and EMTs the addresses of people diagnosed with coronavirus in bid to stop the spread - sparking anger from civil liberties activists
- Zachary man killed 2 stepdaughters and himself one day after his wife died, police say
- Kerala Lockdown Day 23: PSC exams postponed, effective schooling and more
- PETER HITCHENS: Matt Hancock is trying to run the UK like my 1950s prep school
- Coronavirus live updates: Ninth death reported in SF as cases near 600; city’s jails clearing out
- Thousand Oaks councilman, a pastor, resigns, says he’ll defy coronavirus order
- World Health Organization director, Dr Tedros, faces calls to resign for 'deceiving the world by allowing China to cover up true impact of coronavirus'
- Pictured: The black cop who shot dead repeat offender wielding a gun in Milwaukee - sparking four nights of riots, as it's revealed the pair went to school together but ended up on VERY different paths
- Ostrava shooting – Six dead after gunman opens fire in Czech Republic hospital before shooting himself dead
- High Point High School Shooting: Husband Sought in Wife's Death
- Humiliated Nicola Sturgeon admits resignation of Scotland's chief medical officer for flouting her own lockdown rules WILL damage the response to coronavirus
- 'We are beginning to see change': UK's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance offers signs of hope as coronavirus cases start to flatten despite bleakest day yet with 786 new deaths - but Dominic Raab warns lockdown WON'T end yet
Uvalde school police chief resigns from City Council following shooting have 677 words, post on www.telegraph.co.uk at July 3, 2022. This is cached page on Europe Breaking News. If you want remove this page, please contact us.