Peter Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde School District, was immediately placed on administrative leave.
Dr. Hal Harrell, the superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, made the decision public in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Harrell stated that he had planned to make personnel decisions when the shooting investigation was over, but owing to a “lack of clarity” or schedule provided by the agencies involved, he made the decision to place Arredondo on leave.
Arredondo’s problematic actions during the mass shooting came under further criticism during a Texas State Senate hearing into the shooting this week, however Harrell did not explain why he had decided to place Arredondo on leave.
He stated that Lieutenant Mike Hernandez would take over for Arredondo and that the district will search for “suitable people” to join the police department for the upcoming academic year.
In the statement, Harrell said: “Today, I am still without information of the inquiry being done by multiple authorities. I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel choices.”
I have decided to put Chief Arredondo on administrative leave starting today because there is still a lack of clarity and it is unclear when I will learn the investigation’s findings.
Harrell described the choice as a “personal concern” and stated that no additional information will be shared.
After being blamed for the ineffective police reaction to the shooting, Arredondo has come under scrutiny in the weeks since the incident.
After barricading himself inside a classroom at Robb Elementary loaded with fourth graders, he reportedly ordered police officers on the scene to stay still for more than an hour without confronting gunman Salvadaor Ramos, 18.
Steve McCraw, the director of Texas’ Department of Public Safety, blamed Arredondo at yesterday’s state Senate session for the police reaction, calling it “an utter failure.”
The district head, according to McCraw, “chosen to place the lives of police before the lives of children,” in a scathing speech.
The on-scene commander, who chose to put the lives of cops over the lives of children, was the only thing preventing a corridor of committed officers from entering rooms 111 and 112, McCraw claimed.
“The toddlers had no weapons; the officers did.” The police had body armor, but the kids didn’t.