Ex-Uvalde Police Chief Charged With Child Endangerment Over 2022 School Shooting Response

The former school district police chief in Uvalde, Texas, who directed the reaction to the 2022 elementary school massacre that killed 21 people, 19 of whom were children, was arrested on a child endangerment allegation, according to a jail official.

Pete Arredondo, 52, was arrested Thursday and charged with 10 counts of abandoning/endangering a child, according to an indictment filed in the 38th Judicial Court.

The San Antonio Express-News originally reported the charge.

The Uvalde jail official verified that Arredondo was being booked into the facility Thursday afternoon. His bail was set at $10,000 surety bond and nine $10,000 personal recognizance bonds. He posted bail and was freed on the same day.

Arredondo did not immediately reply to calls for comment. It was not known whether he was represented by an attorney.

A second cop has also been charged. Adrian Gonzales was booked and released from jail on Friday, according to the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

Gonzales, 51, is accused of 29 felony charges of abandoning or endangering a child, according to the indictment.

According to the accusation, Gonzales placed 29 children “in imminent danger” of injury or death on May 24, 2022.

Gonzales, who heard gunfire at Robb Elementary School and was informed of the shooter’s general position, did not engage, distract, delay, or obstruct the shooter until the gunman entered rooms 111 and 112 and shot at children, according to the indictment.

Gonzales allegedly violated his active-shooting training by not going toward the gunshots, according to the indictment.

Gonzales’ attorney, Nico LaHood, based in San Antonio, said in a statement Friday that he had just taken the case and would be seeking to collect the material on which the government was basing its claims.

“Mr. Gonzales’ position is he did not violate school district policy or state law,” according to a statement. “This statute’s use to police enforcement in these circumstances is unprecedented in Texas. It will take time to investigate these charges and their underlying facts.”

Arredondo’s indictment stated that in his role as the school district’s police chief and incident commander during the shooting, he “intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, and with criminal negligence” put ten children in “imminent danger of bodily injury, death, physical impairment, and mental impairment.”

According to the indictment, he heard bullets fired in a classroom and “failed to identify the incident as an active shooter incident, failed to respond as trained to an active shooter incident, and instead called for SWAT thereby delaying the response of law enforcement officers.”

After being informed that a child or children had been injured, he directed law enforcement officers to evacuate the wing before confronting the shooter, failed to check if the door to classroom 111 was locked, and failed to “timely provide keys and breaching tools to enter classrooms 111 and 112.” The adjoining classrooms 111 and 112 were among those killed in the atrocity.

According to the indictment, he failed to follow the school district’s active shooter response policy, which included establishing a command center, and failed to develop an “immediate action plan,” leaving law enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents without “clear information or direction” regarding the shooting, causing those officers to “delay[ed] their response” to the active shooter.

Early this year, the Justice Department issued a 600-page study claiming that poor coordination, training, and execution of “active shooter” protocols resulted in a “failure” in the response of Uvalde officers who rushed to Robb Elementary.

Instead of engaging the 18-year-old gunman, who was locked in a classroom with 33 pupils and three teachers, officers retreated after an initial burst of shooting, failing to “push forward immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat,” according to the Justice Department.

According to the investigation, officers were incorrectly instructed that an active shooter, defined by federal authorities as “actively” killing or attempting to kill others, can quickly escalate into a hostage crisis.

More over 70 minutes occurred between the arrival of officers at the school and the gunman’s confrontation and death. In addition to the 19 children, two teachers were fatally shot, and 17 others were injured.

State lawmakers had reached a similar conclusion to the Justice Department, stating in a 2022 report that “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making” plagued law enforcement and school district responses.

According to the Justice Department’s investigation, Arredondo, the scene’s de facto commander, was one of the officers disciplined administratively for their response.

Last year, the Uvalde School Board fired him. At the time, his lawyer identified him as a victim of the shooting and claimed that his termination constituted an “illegal and unconstitutional public lynching.”

The school district issued a statement saying it did not know.

“As we have done and continue to do, we extend our sincerest sympathies to all who lost loved ones,” according to the statement. “Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this challenging situation.”

Berlinda Arreola, whose 10-year-old granddaughter, Amerie Jo Garza, was among those killed, stated on Thursday that Arredondo’s arrest is not a “happy moment” NBCNEWS reported.

“This is still a painful moment. “There’s nothing to be happy about,” she explained. “We’re having to go through this nightmare again because they had the opportunity to save some of our loved ones – possibly all of them.