督学宣布，在一次校园枪击事件中19名儿童和两名教师丧生的德克萨斯州学区的四面楚歌的警察局长已经被行政停职。
乌瓦尔迪联合独立学区(u valde Consolidated Independent School District)的警察局长皮特·阿雷东多(Pete Arredondo)因其对5月24日罗伯小学(Robb Elementary School)枪击案的处理以及推迟警察进入枪手实施袭击的教室的决定而受到批评。Arredondo在枪击现场担任事件指挥官。
学区在周三的一份声明中表示，假期将立即生效。尤瓦尔迪联合独立学区负责人哈尔·哈勒尔博士说，迈克·埃尔南德斯中将将承担警察局长的职责。
“从这一可怕事件的一开始，我就表示，学区将等到调查完成后再做出人事决定，”哈勒尔说。“今天，我仍然不知道各个机构正在进行的调查的细节。由于仍不清楚，也不知道我何时会收到调查结果，我已决定让Arredondo警长行政休假，自即日起生效。”
阿雷东多是枪击案听证会上唯一的证人周二在德克萨斯州众议院执行会议期间举行。那天晚上晚些时候，乌瓦尔迪市议会一致拒绝了Arredondo的请求请假不参加未来的会议。Arredondo在5月底宣誓就任市议会成员。
枪击事件发生后，在州参议院周二举行的关于学校安全、警察培训和社交媒体的听证会上，德克萨斯州公共安全部主任史蒂文·麦克劳大声朗读了警方无线电通讯的文字记录，显示枪手进入学校近一个小时后，一名警官告诉警察局长，“人们会问我们为什么要花这么长时间。”
“我们试图保护生命，”根据文字记录，阿雷东多回答道。
家长和社区成员周一要求Arredondo辞职，其中一些人认为，由于所谓的决策不足，执法部门应该对悲剧承担部分责任。
本月早些时候，Arredondo告诉德克萨斯论坛报他不认为自己是枪击当天现场的指挥官，也没有人告诉他911电话是在枪手被击毙前77分钟。
“我们对已有的信息作出了反应，并不得不适应我们面临的任何情况，”他说。“我们的目标是尽可能多地拯救生命，在我们接近枪手并消除威胁之前，所有相关人员将学生从教室中救出拯救了500多名乌瓦尔迪的学生和教师。”
根据初步评估，州调查人员认为，推迟警察进入教室的决定是为了让防护设备有时间到达现场，一名听取了德克萨斯州公共安全部负责人闭门陈述的官员本月早些时候告诉ABC新闻。
然而，等待防护装备与过去20年来全国执法机构采用的主动射击协议相矛盾。
Uvalde school district puts Pete Arredondo on administrative leave
The embattled police chief of the Texas school district where 19 children and two teachers were killed in a school shooting has been placed on administrative leave, the superintendent announced.
Pete Arredondo, the police chief for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, has been criticized for his handling of the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24 that killed 19 third and fourth graders and two teachers, and the decision to delay police entry into the classrooms where the gunman carried out the attack. Arredondo served as the incident commander on the scene of the shooting.
The leave will take effect immediately, the school district said in a statement Wednesday. Lt. Mike Hernandez will assume the duties of the Chief of Police, said Dr. Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
"From the beginning of this horrible event, I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel decisions," Harrell said. "Today, I am still without details of the investigations being conducted by various agencies. Because of the lack of clarity that remains 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 effective on this date."
Arredondo was thelone witness at the hearing on the shootingheld during an executive session by the Texas state House of Representatives on Tuesday. Later that night, the Uvalde City Councilunanimously denied Arredondo's requestfor a leave of absence from future meetings. Arredondo had been sworn in as a city council member at the end of May.
During a state Senate hearing Tuesday on school safety, police training and social media in the wake of the shooting, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw read aloud from a transcript of police radio communications, revealing that nearly an hour after the gunman entered the school, an officer told the police chief, "People are going to ask why we’re taking so long."
"We’re trying to preserve life," Arredondo replied, per the transcript.
Parents and community members called for Arredondo's resignation on Monday, with several arguing that law enforcement should be held partly accountable for the tragedy due to what was described as inadequate decision-making.
Earlier this month, Arredondo toldThe Texas Tribunehe did not consider himself the commanding officer on the scene on the day of the shooting and that no one told him about the 911 calls that came in during the77 minutes before the gunman was taken down.
"We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced," he said. "Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat."
State investigators, according to a preliminary assessment, believe the decision to delay police entry into the classroom was made in order to allow time for protective gear to arrive on scene, an official briefed on a closed-door presentation by the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety told ABC News earlier this month.
However, waiting for protective gear contradicts active shooter protocols that have been adopted by law enforcement agencies across the country in the last 20 years.
