乌瓦尔迪学校董事会官员周三一致投票决定解雇皮特·阿雷东多该学区的警察局长,正好在杀死19名学生和两名教师的校园枪击案发生三个月后。
终止立即生效。
Arredondo的律师George Hyde在周三晚上社区集会前不久发布的一份17页的声明中说,出于对他安全的担忧,他没有出席终止听证会。
海德声称,该地区在进行纪律处分时没有提起适当的法律程序,并且后续要求获得地区投诉或调查的请求“被该地区忽视”,称该诉讼是“非法和违宪的公开私刑”。
阿雷东多因对5月24日悲剧的延迟反应而成为批评的目标。
学校官员继续面临压力,要求他们对执法人员打破教室门并杀死18岁枪手之前的77分钟负责。
Uvalde联合独立学区建议解雇Arredondo。乌瓦尔迪学校董事会取消了7月23日的特别会议考虑地区的建议“符合正当程序的要求,并应其律师的要求。”
学校董事会成员在8月15日的会议上同意在听证会前聘请外部律师。
家长和社区成员呼吁官员立即解雇Arredondo,一些人呼吁解雇在枪击事件中在场的Uvalde学区警察部队的其他成员。
据安介绍德克萨斯州众议院的调查报告在5月24日的事件中,学区的书面主动射手计划指定Arredondo在主动射手事件中“承担指挥和控制”。
“但随着事件的发展,他未能履行或将事件指挥官的角色转移给另一个人,”来自州议会的报告写道。“这是他在上述计划中分配给自己的一项基本职责,但没有人有效地履行这项职责。”
该报告继续描述了目击者的普遍共识,即现场的警察要么“认为Arredondo警长负责,要么他们不知道有人负责几名目击者描述的‘混乱’或‘混乱’的现场。”"
《乌瓦尔迪:365》是美国广播公司的一个连续新闻系列,从乌瓦尔迪报道,重点关注德克萨斯州社区以及它如何在悲剧的阴影下前进。
在…里德克萨斯论坛报的采访Arredondo说他不认为自己是现场的指挥官。他说他不知道911电话是来自被袭击教室里的孩子们。
Arredondo为警方对此事件的反应进行了辩护。
阿雷东多说:“我们对我们所掌握的信息做出了回应,并不得不适应我们所面临的任何情况。”。“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。”
2022年5月26日,乌瓦尔迪学校警察局长皮特·阿雷东多(左三)站在德克萨斯州乌瓦尔迪的罗布小学外面的新闻发布会上。
达里奥·洛佩兹-米尔斯/美联社,档案
校园枪击案前15个月,Arredondo在一次学校董事会议上提到了一些安全问题found在与5月24日大屠杀有关的失败中发挥了关键作用,包括警方无线电和学校大门敞开的问题。
在其他评论中,Arredondo指出需要更积极的射手训练。
Arredondo辞去了他在市议会的职务,目前正在休假,不再担任UCISD警察局局长。
他的律师周三表示,他呼吁董事会“立即恢复他的职位,支付所有欠薪和福利,并以毫无根据为由结束投诉”。
Uvalde school board unanimously approves Police Chief Pete Arredondo's termination
Uvalde school board officials unanimously voted Wednesday to firePete Arredondo, the school district's police chief, exactly three months after the school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers.
The termination is effective immediately.
Arredondo was not in attendance at his termination hearing out of concerns over his safety, his attorney, George Hyde, said in a 17-page statement released shortly before the community gathered Wednesday evening.
Hyde claimed that the district did not file proper legal procedures in proceeding with disciplinary action and that follow-up requests for access to district complaints or investigations "have been ignored by the district," calling the proceedings an "illegal and unconstitutional public lynching."
Arredondo has been the target of criticism for the delayed response to the May 24 tragedy.
School officials have continued to face pressure to hold officers accountable for the 77 minutes it took before law enforcement breached a classroom door and killed the 18-year-old gunman.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District recommended that Arredondo be fired. The Uvalde school boardcanceled its July 23 special sessionto consider the district's recommendation "in conformity with due process requirements, and at the request of his attorney."
School board members agreed in an Aug. 15 meeting to hire outside attorneys ahead of the hearing.
Parents and community members have called on officials to fire Arredondo immediately, with some calling for the firing of other members of Uvalde's school district police force who were present during the shooting.
According to aninvestigative report by the Texas House of Representativesinto the events of May 24, the school district's written active shooter plan assigned Arredondo "to assume command and control" during an active shooter incident.
"But as events unfolded, he failed to perform or to transfer to another person the role of incident commander," the report from the state House read. "This was an essential duty he had assigned to himself in the plan mentioned above, yet it was not effectively performed by anyone."
The report goes on to describe the general consensus from witnesses that officers on the scene either "assumed that Chief Arredondo was in charge, or that they could not tell that anybody was in charge of a scene described by several witnesses as 'chaos' or a 'cluster.'"
Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.
Inan interview with The Texas Tribune, Arredondo said he did not consider himself the commanding officer on the scene. He has said he was not made aware of the 911 calls coming from the children in the attacked classrooms.
Arredondo has defended the police response to the incident.
"We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced," Arredondo 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."
Fifteen months before the school shooting, Arredondo at a school board meetingmentioned some of the security issues that investigatorsfound played critical roles in the failures connected with the May 24 massacre, including problems with police radios and school doors left open.
In other remarks, Arredondo pointed out the need for more active shooter training.
Arredondo resigned from his city council post and is currently on leave from his position as UCISD police chief.
He is calling for the board to "immediately reinstate him, with all back pay and benefits and close the complaint as unfounded," his attorney said Wednesday.