School massacre in Uvalde, Texas: squad leader suspended from duty

Uvalde
After school massacre in Texas: commander suspended from duty

A police officer lays flowers in front of Robb Elementary School. After criticism of the police operation in Uvalde, the operations manager has now been put on leave. The school is to be demolished.

© Wu Xiaoling/XinHua/DPA

After the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, criticism of the local police has grown louder. A police officer has been criticized for intervening too late. Now he’s on leave.

Almost a month after the school shooting in the US city of Uvalde, Texas that killed 21, the school district’s police chief has been suspended until further notice. The Texas city’s school district superintendent, Hal Harrell, said Wednesday that he had given Pete Arredondo a leave of absence. He actually wanted to wait for the results of the investigation before making any personnel decisions. However, since it was unclear by when the investigation would be completed, he decided to temporarily exclude Arredondo from the service. Arredondo previously headed the police department responsible for security at the schools in Uvalde.

At a hearing in the Texas Senate, Texas Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said on Tuesday that just three minutes after the shooter entered a classroom and opened fire, nine police officers were outside the room, two of them with guns. More were gradually added. The operations manager decided to wait for reinforcements, more guns and protective equipment. None of this was necessary, McCraw argued.

“Pathetic failure” of the police in Uvalde

McCraw accused the local police officers of “pathetic failure”. Instead of quickly stopping the shooter at the elementary school, they wasted valuable time looking for a classroom key that wasn’t needed.

McCraw attributed the long wait to the “terrible decisions” made by operations manager Arredondo. He had “decided to put the lives of officials before the lives of children”.

In such a situation, if in doubt, a police officer with a gun is enough to stop the gunman – even if that poses a risk for the officer. The police officers outside the room had guns, protective gear and the training for such situations, but the children had none, McCraw said. Nevertheless, the students and teachers had to wait “an hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds” for emergency services to enter the room to save them.

Texas elementary school to be demolished

The mayor of Uvalde announced the demolition of the primary school on Tuesday. “You can’t ask a child or a teacher to go back to this school,” said Don McLoughlin.

An 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers at a primary school in the small town of Uvalde at the end of May. The attacker shot the children and teachers in two connected classrooms with an assault rifle. Only about 75 minutes after the shooter opened fire, emergency services penetrated into the room and killed the perpetrator.

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DPA
AFP

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