Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo resigning from city council
The police chief for the Uvalde school district has resigned from his position on the Uvalde City Council weeks after the Robb Elementary School mass shooting. Pete Arredondo has said he didn't consider himself the person in charge of officials' response to the May 24 shooting, which left 21 people dead, but other officials who were there that day have said otherwise.
In his resignation letter, dated July 1, Arredondo said "after must consideration, it is in the best interest of the community to step down as a member of the city council for district 3 to minimize further distractions."
He called on the community, which saw one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history last month, to "continue to support the families, continue to support our community and, above all, to keep strong in our faith."
The Uvalde Leader-News was first to report his resignation.
The Uvalde City Council said in a statement earlier Saturday that it hasn't yet received a letter, or any other documentation, from him regarding his resignation. The city council added that resigning would be "the right thing to do."
Arredondo had missed several council meetings in the weeks since the school shooting, and he has faced intense criticism for officials' seemingly slow response to the incident.
Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said three days after the shooting that Arredondo made "the wrong decision" when he chose not to storm the classroom for more than 70 minutes, even as trapped fourth graders inside two classrooms were desperately calling 911 for help and anguished parents outside the school begged officers to go inside.
Arredondo later said he didn't consider himself the person in charge and assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response.
After the shooting, the Uvalde City Council voted unanimously against giving Arredondo a leave of absence from appearing at public meetings. Relatives of the shooting victims had pleaded with city leaders to instead fire him.