AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Former Uvalde School Police Cmdr. Slow police response A local sheriff issued a statement Thursday following the 2022 mass murder at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Pete Arredondo was indicted by a grand jury on 10 felony counts of child endangerment/abandonment and was briefly booked into the county jail before being released on bail, Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said in a text message to The Associated Press on Thursday night.
of Uvalde Leader News And that san antonio express news Former school employee Adrian Gonzalez was also indicted on multiple similar charges, the Uvalde Leader-News reported, with District Attorney Christina Mitchell confirming the indictment.
Mitchell did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Several family members of the shooting victims also did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
The indictment makes Arredondo and Gonzalez, who was the scene commander at the time of the attack, the first officers to face criminal charges in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. A scathing report from Texas lawmakers A report investigating the police response said Gonzalez was one of the first officers to enter the building after the shooting began.
The indictments were kept sealed until both defendants were taken into custody, and it is unclear when Arredondo’s indictment will be unsealed.
More than two years ago, an 18-year-old shooter opened fire in a fourth-grade classroom and remained there for more than 70 minutes before being subdued by police and shot and killed. 376 law enforcement officers On May 24, 2022, a crowd gathered at Robb Elementary School, some of them waiting in the hallways outside classrooms, while a gunman could be heard firing an AR-15 style rifle.
“Today is another day in an incredibly painful journey,” state Rep. Joe Moody, who assisted state lawmakers in the investigation, posted on social platform X. “Their hearts will never heal, and today I pray that this process brings them justice and some closure, rather than prolonged suffering.”
The office of Arredondo’s former attorney said it didn’t know whether the former police chief had new representation. The Associated Press could not immediately find a phone number to reach Gonzalez.
Arredondo I lost my job Three months after the shooting, several of the officers involved were eventually fired, and separate investigations by the Justice Department and state lawmakers accused the police department of mishandling the mass killing.
Whether officers will face criminal charges over their actions in Uvalde has been a question hanging over the city of 15,000 since the Texas Rangers completed their investigation and turned their findings over to prosecutors.
Mitchell’s office is also under investigation. Uvalde city officials The lawsuit was filed in 2022. They also criticized the prosecutor’s office for lacking transparency and concealing records about the shooting. Sued the Uvalde authorities To withhold records requested under the Official Information Act.
But body camera footage, investigations by journalists, Government report criticised The investigation found that numerous officers were in and out of the school with their weapons drawn for more than an hour, but did not enter the classroom where the shooting occurred. Hundreds of officers were at the scene, including state police, Uvalde police, school officials and U.S. Border Patrol agents.
In a July 2022 report, the Texas Legislature Law enforcement at all levels “They did not prioritize saving the lives of innocent people over their own safety.” Department of Justice The department released its own report in January detailing “cascading failures” by police, including waiting too long to confront the shooter, acting with a “lack of urgency” in setting up a command post and giving inaccurate information to grieving families.
Uvalde remains divided between residents who say they want to move past the tragedy and those who still want accountability and responsibility. The locals voted A man who became mayor after losing his mother more than 10 years ago He led the call for stricter gun control. After her daughter was killed in the attack.
Robb Elementary is currently closed. The city is scheduled to break ground on a new school building in October 2023.
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Read the Associated Press’ full story on the Uvalde, Texas school shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
