Uvalde shooting: School board fires district police chief

The board of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Wednesday fired the school district's police chief for his handling of the shooting rampage that killed 19 children and two teachers in the city three months ago.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's board of trustees unanimously voted to dismiss Chief Pete Arredondo, who had been on unpaid administrative leave since the May 24 shooting.

Family members of victims who were present at the meeting applauded the decision. Some audience members yelled "coward!" reported AP news agency. A few parents walked out in tears. 

Arredondo is the first official to be fired over the handling of the massacre at the Uvalde school on May 24.

Arredondo did not attend. A written statement from his attorney, George Hyde, was emailed to board members just before the board met. It said he had received death threats, and criticized the district's lack of efforts to provide him protection.

The letter spoke against the board's decision to not allow him to carry a weapon to the meeting, to protect himself. It also said the committee had not carried out any investigation "establishing evidence supporting a decision to terminate him."

Criticism for handling the massacre

Response by the around 400 police officials during the shooting has been under massive scrutiny across the US. And Arredondo has come under the heaviest criticism for his handling of the event. Parents of children killed and injured in the shooting had demanded his dismissal.

He was forced to resign his seat on the Uvalde City Council on July 2. 

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Arredondo acted as "incident commander" in charge of law enforcement's response to the shooting.

DPS officials said 19 officers waited for an hour in a hallway outside adjoining classrooms where the gunman was present with victims. A US Border Patrol-led tactical team finally entered and killed the suspected shooter.

DPS said Arredondo, who was overseeing a six-member police force, did not send officers to confront the shooter as he believed the immediate threat had subsided after an initial burst of gunfire.

Arredondo has said he did not consider himself incident commander, and had not ordered police to hold back on storming into the classroom.

The campus of Robb Elementary School is no longer being used, as several students are unwilling to return to in-person classes, following the event. Campuses elsewhere in Uvalde are serving as temporary classrooms, said school officials. 

The shooting has intensified an already existing debate over gun control in the country.

tg/sri  (AP, Reuters)