Arredondo, the chief of police for Uvalde’s school district, said in his letter of resignation earlier this month that he was stepping down from the city council position in order to “minimize further distractions”.
“The mayor, city council and city staff must continue to reunite our community,” Arredondo said. In response, the city said his resignation was “the right thing to do.”
Arredondo’s attorney did not respond to CNN’s earlier request for comment following his letter of resignation.
The city council’s move came the same day the Austin American-Statesman newspaper published edited portions of surveillance video from the day of the shooting. An edited video shows the gunman walking down the hallway with a long rifle. The recording also shows officers approaching the classroom, but then retreating down the hallway and taking cover when gunshots are heard. Authorities did not confront the gunman directly until more than an hour later.
The district police chief was previously identified by state authorities as the site commander during the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School. His role in the failed police response to the shooting – which killed 19 students and two teachers – has come under intense public scrutiny and criticism. Last month, he was placed on furlough by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
“Due to the lack of clarity that persists and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave as of this date,” Chief Superintendent Hal Harrell wrote in the announcement. from June. to the media.
In a Texas Senate hearing last month, Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, called law enforcement’s response to the attack an “abject failure” and blamed Arredondo.
“Three minutes after the subject entered the West Building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract and neutralize the subject,” McCraw said at the time. “The only thing that kept the corridor of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the commander on site, who decided to put the lives of officers before the lives of children.”
Arredondo told the Texas Tribune in June that he did not consider himself the incident commander and assumed that another official was in control of the larger response.
A new assessment of law enforcement’s response published earlier this month, which revealed significant issues and flaws with law enforcement’s response, pointed to a lack of effective command and control during the incident.
Arredondo was elected to the city council on May 7, just weeks before the school shooting. Several days after the attack, he was sworn in privately, without prior notice to the media.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, there was applause from off-camera onlookers after city leaders passed the motion to accept Arredondo’s resignation.
