Uvalde police call out to shooter at Robb Elementary School
Uvalde police released bodycam footage showing the law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The board of education in Uvalde, Texas, will hold a special meeting this weekend to discuss the fate of the district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, following his much-criticized leadership during a school shooting response on May 24.
The attack took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.
The district normally holds board meetings on the third Monday of each month but announced the special Saturday meeting on its website along with a copy of the agenda, which states that board members make time for "discussion and possible action regarding termination for good cause as recommended by the superintendent of the non-certified contract of Pete Arredondo."
Arredondo had previously resigned from city council but remained in his role as police chief, and the board has come under fire for resisting calls to force him out.
Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo speaks at a press conference following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (Mikala Compton/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS)
Current and former law enforcement leaders have widely criticized the Uvalde response, in which officers arrived on scene minutes after the gunman but remained in a hallway for more than an hour as gunshots rang out in a classroom and panicked children called 911 from inside.
A Texas House of Representatives investigation found "multiple systemic failures" and a "lack of effective overall command."
Uvalde residents demand school police chief Pete Arredondo be fired after the tragic shooting that left 19 of the town's children, and two adults, dead. (Fox News Digital)
Gov. Greg Abbott called the findings "beyond disturbing" and demanded critical changes to how the state approaches public safety, school security and mental health.
"I am stunned that the chief doesn’t simply resign," said Dave Katz, a former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent and the Texas-based CEO of Global Security Group.
Uvalde police officers and other law enforcement officers are seen responding to a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in a bodycam video recorded on May 24, 2022. (Uvalde Police Department)
Katz, a father of three who previously spearheaded the DEA’s ballistic shields program, and other experts say standard active shooter protocols require law enforcement to immediately engage the assailant.
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"The response was a complete and utter failure at all levels, starting with the fact that as the senior officer in charge of school security, there was never an assessment done to make sure doors both exterior and interior could be locked, and that active shooter drills would actually include locking the doors," Katz told Fox News Digital Wednesday. "Once the shooting began, and once children were either dead, dying or at risk of further injury, there is no other option besides immediately entering and engaging this shooter."
He added, "His was not the only failure, but it was certainly the most significant failure."
Arredondo did not respond to a request for comment.
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