Uvalde schools police chief completed active shooter training before shooting, records show
The Texas law enforcement official faulted for delaying the law enforcement response to a mass shooting in Uvalde recently completed active shooting training courses prior to the fatal incident, records show. As new information emerges, community members are continuing to question officials' response to the shooting that left 21 people dead — 19 of them children — and more than a dozen others injured.
On December 17, 2021, Chief Pete Arredondo of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) completed an eight-hour school-based law enforcement training on active shooter situations at Southwest Texas Junior College, according to a personal status report provided to CBS News by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
Arredondo, who has worked at the school district since 2020, completed eight hours of the same course on August 25, 2020 and 16 hours of a "Terrorism Response Tactics - Active Shooter" course on June 10, 2019, records show.
Since 2018, the Texas Administrative Code has required school district peace officers and school resource officers to complete an active shooter response training program approved by the state law enforcement commission. Trainings include curriculum to prepare officers for emergency scenarios, according to the Texas School Safety Center.
Despite Arredondo's training, some have criticized his approach at handling the recent mass shooting in Uvalde.
Under Arredondo's direction, around 20 officers stood in a hallway waiting at Robb Elementary School for more than 45 minutes before officials confronted a gunman inside a classroom as students and teachers repeatedly begged for help, officials revealed last week.
According to director Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Arredondo believed the gunman was barricaded in a classroom during the attack, and that the children were not at risk.
"Of course it was not the right decision," McCraw said Friday. "It was the wrong decision."
Arredondo was scheduled to be sworn in as a council member Tuesday, but Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin rescheduled the special city council meeting on Monday in wake of the shooting, according to CBS News affiliate KHOU 11. Despite criticism surrounding the police chief, McLaughlin said Arredondo's record shows no offenses that would stop him from taking the oath to office, KHOU 11 reports.
An investigation reviewing the police's response to the Uvalde school shooting is underway by the United States Department of Justice.