By Canadian Press

Former Uvalde schools police chief loses bid to toss criminal charges related to 2022 shooting

Dec 19, 2024 | 10:26 AM

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Thursday refused to throw out criminal charges accusing the former Uvalde schools police chief of putting children at risk during a slow response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.

Pete Arredondo said he was improperly charged and that the shooter was responsible for putting the victims in danger in the school attack on May 24, 2022. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed.

Arredondo also said he was scapegoated for the halting police response. Nearly 400 law enforcement agents rushed to the scene in rural South Texas but waited more than 70 minutes to confront and kill the gunman in a fourth-grade classroom.

Judge Sid Harle handed down the ruling during a hearing in a Uvalde courtroom.

Arredondo has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of abandoning or endangering a child, each of which carried a punishment of up to two years in jail. He and former Uvalde schools officer Adrian Gonzales are the only officers who have been charged for their actions that day.

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Gonzales has not asked the judge to dismiss his charges but could at a later date.

The indictment against Arredondo alleges he did not follow his active shooter training and made critical decisions that slowed the police response while the gunman was “hunting” his victims.

It alleges that instead of confronting the gunman immediately, Arredondo caused delays by telling officers to evacuate a hallway to wait for a SWAT team, evacuating students from other areas of the building first, and trying to negotiate with the shooter while victims inside the classroom were wounded and dying.

Arredondo’s attorneys say the danger that day was not caused by him, but by the shooter. They argue Arredondo was blamed for trying to save the lives of the other children in the building, and have warned that prosecuting him would open many future law enforcement actions to similar charges.

The massacre at Robb Elementary was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history, and the law enforcement response has been widely condemned as a massive failure.

Nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents, 91 state police officers, as well and school and city police rushed to the campus. While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. More than an hour later, a team of officers breached the classroom and killed the gunman.

Within days of the shooting, the focus of the slow response turned on Arredondo, who was described by other responding agencies as the incident commander in charge.

Multiple federal and state investigations have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers. Several victims or their families have filed multiple state and federal lawsuits.

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Associated Press reporter Jim Vertuno contributed from Austin, Texas.

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Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Nadia Lathan, The Associated Press