The district police chief of Uvalde has been fired in reaction to the delayed response of myriads of highly armed law enforcement personnel during the Robb Elementary School tragedy in May.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) board of trustees unanimously fired police chief Pete Arredondo three months after one of the bloodiest classroom shootings in US history.
He’d been on unpaid administrative leave since the shooting on May 24.
In the room where the meeting was held, parents screamed “coward.”
Mr Arredondo did not attend, but his lawyer produced a blistering 4,500-word statement that amounted to the police chief’s fullest defence of his conduct thus far.
The document stated over 17 defiant pages, that Mr Arredondo was not the bumbling school police chief blamed by a damning state investigation for failing to take command and wasting time looking for keys to a likely unlocked door, but a brave officer whose level-headed decisions saved the lives of other students.
The former police chief of Uvalde, Texas, has been placed on paid leave over his handling of the school shooting.
The Police rushed to the scene with bulletproof shields and high-powered rifles within minutes. But waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman in a classroom.
