Uvalde District Police Chief Indicted Over Botched Response to School Massacre
Uvalde Shooting
Pete Arredondo, the former district chief, and Adrian Gonzales, a former school police officer, face charges for their actions during the 2022 elementary school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers
The former Uvalde schools police chief and another former district officer have been indicted by a grand jury for their role responding to a gunman who opened fire inside Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers in May 2022.
Pete Arredondo, the former chief who served as police commander, is in custody and accused of abandoning and endangering a child individual, the San Antonio Express-News reported on Thursday. Adrian Gonzales, a former district police officer was also indicted on Thursday, according to multiple reports. The Austin American-Statesman reported the two former officers could face up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted of the felony charges.
The new indictments arrive after a half-year grand jury investigation that involved in-person testimony.
The response of law enforcement officials to the 2022 massacre has been described as a major failure by both the Department of Justice and the Texas House of Representatives, following lengthy investigations. Officials infamously waited outside Robb Elementary for over an hour before finally entering and confronting the gunman, who was killed inside a classroom.
The indictment news comes just over a month after the families of the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting reached a $2 million settlement with the City of Uvalde, and filed a lawsuit against law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting.
The late May settlement damages will be distributed to the families of the 17 children killed, as well as the families of two children who were wounded. The agreement also includes several items aimed at improving the Uvalde police force.
The lawsuit against 92 Texas Department of Public Safety officers accuses the officers of not doing enough to stop the gunman during the massacre. The lawsuit also names as defendants the Uvalde School District and several employees, including the principal and school district police chief at the time. The families have alleged the school’s lockdown procedures, such as turning off the lights and locking the doors, exacerbated the damage as it left them “fully reliant on law enforcement to respond.”
