The Uvalde School District Police Chief, in charge of operations when a gunman killed 19 children and two female teachers on May 24, has been suspended, the district superintendent announced Wednesday.
The announcement comes a day after the Texas director of public safety came under heavy criticism over the police response to the massacre, calling it aabsolute failure.
Since the beginning of this horrific event, I have maintained that the District will wait until the investigation is complete before making personnel decisions. […]. Due to the remaining lack of clarity and the unknown timing on when I will receive the results of the investigation, I have made the decision to place Chief (Pete) Arredondo on administrative leave, effective today. todaySuperintendent Hal Harrell said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, had in particular castigated the fact that Pete Arredondo had decided to put the lives of agents before those of children.
We know one thing: there is compelling evidence that law enforcement’s response to the attack on Robb Elementary School was an utter failure and goes against everything we have learned over the course of the last two decades since the Columbine massacre in a high school in 1999, he said.
The time taken by the police – more than an hour – to enter the classroom and kill the 18-year-old shooter has been the subject of strong criticism since the shooting, and Steven McCraw had driven the point home during this television hearing.
The officers had guns, the children did not. The officers had bulletproof vests, the children did not. The agents were trained, not the shooterhe still asserted.
The mayor of Uvalde also announced on Tuesday that Robb Elementary School would be demolished.
You can never ask a child or a teacher back to this schoolsaid Don McLoughlin.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
