Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo resigned from the city's City Council on Friday, just weeks after being sworn in following allegations that he was wrong in his response to the school shooting. Robb Elementary which left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Arredondo told the Uvalde Leader-News on Friday that he has decided to resign for the good of the City Administration.
He was elected to the District 3 alderman seat on May 7 and was sworn in in a closed-door ceremony on May 31, just a week after the massacre.
However, Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez assured NBC News that Arredondo
has not officially communicated his plans to resign.
The city of Uvalde said the same thing in a statement.
Uvalde Police Chief Peter Arredondo at a news conference following the shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.Mikala Compton/USA Today Network via NBC News
"Although it is correct, no one from the city has seen a letter or any other documentation of his resignation, or spoken with him," the document says.
"When the city receives confirmation of Councilman Arredondo's resignation, the Council will address the vacant Councilman position," he adds.
“After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to resign as a member of the city council for District 3. The Mayor, City Council and city staff must continue to move forward without distraction.
I think this is the best decision for Uvalde,” said Arredondo.
Arredondo, who has been on administrative leave from the school district since June 22, has refused repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.
His attorney, George Hyde, did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment Saturday.
Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told a state Senate hearing last month that Arredondo made "terrible decisions" as the May 24 massacre unfolded, and that the police response was a "failure." abject".
Three minutes after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school, there were enough armed security forces on the scene to apprehend the gunman, McCraw testified.
However, police officers armed with rifles waited in a hallway at the school for more than an hour while Ramos carried out the massacre.
The classroom door was not lockable from the inside, but there is no indication that officers tried to open the door while the shooter was inside, McCraw said.
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The colonel has said parents begged police to come in and students inside the classroom repeatedly begged 911 operators for help as more than a dozen officers waited in a hallway.
Agents from other agencies urged Arredondo to let them in because the children were in danger.
“The only thing that prevented a corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on the scene, who decided to put the lives of the officers before those of the children,” McCraw condemned.
One hour, 14 minutes and 8 seconds passed
between the time police entered the building and the time the gunman was killed ,
according to McCraw.
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Arredondo has tried to defend his actions, telling the Texas Tribune that he did not consider himself the commander in charge of operations and that he assumed someone else had taken control of the law enforcement response.
And he added that he did not have the police and campus radios, but that he used his cell phone to request tactical equipment, a sniper and the keys to the classroom.
It is still unclear why the police took so long to enter the classroom, how they communicated with each other during the attack, and what their body cameras show.
Authorities have declined to provide further details, citing the investigation.
Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city.
