The chief of police of Uvalde, Daniel Rodríguez, abruptly announced his resignation this Tuesday, amid the rejection of the municipal council of that Texas city to a controversial report from the local government that defended the police response to the massacre at the School Robb Elementary.
Daniel Rodríguez
was not in Uvalde
on May 24, 2022 when an armed teenager opened fire at the school and remained inside for 77 minutes before being killed.
That day, Rodríguez had assigned Lieutenant Mariano Pargas as interim chief.
Pargas resigned in 2022.
The school shooting, one of the deadliest in US history, left 19 children and two teachers dead.
“It is with mixed feelings that I present to you my resignation from the position of Chief of Police of the City of Uvalde, effective April 6, 2024. After much contemplation and consideration, I believe it is time for me to embark on a new chapter in my career,” Rodriguez wrote in his resignation letter to City Manager Vince DiPiazza.
An investigation ordered by the Uvalde city government into the massacre this month defended the local police response to that shooting, prompting cries of “cowards!”
and that many relatives of the victims left the municipal council session upset.
The report acknowledged a series of errors during the botched response to the 2022 attack, and reiterated the chain of missteps that had already been exposed in investigations by the Justice Department and state legislators.
[Families of Uvalde victims angrily criticize a new report that exempts the police from blame despite their “multiple failures”]
Nearly 400 police officers, including members of the Uvalde Police Department, showed up at the scene, but waited more than an hour to confront the attacker, a teenager armed with an AR-type assault rifle.
But an investigator hired by Uvalde authorities found that city officers did not violate policies and, in some cases, praised their actions during one of the worst school massacres in U.S. history.
The presentation provoked an angry reaction among some of the victims' relatives, who also reprimanded the investigator for leaving the premises before they had the opportunity to question him.