Uvalde ISD to decide Saturday whether to fire Pete Arredondo over police errors in shooting response

Marlene Lenthang, Jamie Morrison and Phil Helsel -

The Uvalde (Texas) school district has scheduled a special meeting this weekend to discuss the possible firing of its disputed police chief, Pedro (nicknamed

Arredondo.

The officer is on administrative leave while authorities assess his disputed response to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School, which killed 19 students and two teachers.

Responding officers waited 77 minutes to intervene even though lives could have been saved.

The closed-door session of the school board scheduled for Saturday will include a consultation with the district attorney "on legal and procedural issues related to the recommended termination for good cause of Pete Arredondo's uncertified contract," according to the circular announcing the announcement. known meeting this Wednesday.

Arredondo, at a press conference after the shooting. Mikala Compton / USA Today Network via NBC News

At the end of the meeting, an open session will be held for questions and the possible dismissal of Arredondo will be discussed, "as recommended by the superintendent."

A Texas House report on the police response detailed "systemic failures" and errors by officers and the school board.

Under the district's plan for responding to a shooting, Arredondo should have taken command, but the report indicates he did not.

The officer has said that he did not consider himself in charge of the operation.

"I didn't issue any orders," he told The Texas Tribune, "I asked for help and an extraction tool to open the door."

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Arredondo became the school district's police chief in 2020. He was elected as a Uvalde councilman just weeks before the shooting and was sworn in a week after the massacre.

He resigned on July 2.

On Monday, parents of the victims expressed their anger and sadness to the school board at the response of the authorities and demanded that the superintendent, Hal Harrell, be fired and the resignation of some of the administrative staff, as well as the resignation of Arredondo.