AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File
The former Uvalde school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, has been indicted two years after a mass elementary school shooting left 21 people dead.
According to CNN, Arredondo was indicted alongside former school police officer Adrian Gonzales. Additionally, the pair are facing felony charges of “abandoning and endangering a child.” The outlet notes that the charges against the pair reportedly represent the “first criminal charges filed in the school massacre.”
NBC News adds that Uvalde jail has confirmed that Arredondo was “booked into the facility” on Thursday, June 27.
According to the outlet, earlier this year, the Justice Department released a 600-page report regarding the Robb Elementary School mass shooting which occurred on May 24, 2022. The report concluded that “poor coordination, training, and execution” of active shooter protocols among the Uvalde school officers resulted in their failed response.
Additionally, the report asserted that instead of “engaging” with the active shooter, the officers “retreated” after his initial gunfire. The officers allegedly did not “push forward… and continuously to eliminate the threat.”
NBC News notes that the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was “locked in a classroom with 33 students and three teachers” at the time.
Lastly, the report asserts that it took officers at least 70 minutes to confront and kill Ramos. Furthermore, the officer’s “failed” response aided in 19 kids, and two teachers being killed.
Additionally, seventeen others were reportedly injured.
According to NBC News, Arredondo was fired by the Uvalde school board in 2023.
