Pete Arredondo, the former school police chief of Uvalde, Texas, has been indicted on charges of child endangerment for his part in the botched response to a deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School two years ago, sources told the San Antonio Express-News on Thursday.
Another former school police officer, Adrian Gonzales, was also reportedly indicted on the same charges, handed down by a Uvalde County grand jury.
It marks the first criminal charges brought over the May 24, 2022 massacre, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed.
In the weeks and months after the school shooting, the deadliest in the state’s history, Arredondo received much of the blame for the delay in confronting the gunman.
Though officers from multiple agencies were on school grounds within minutes of the first shots fired, they waited more than an hour before breaching the classroom in which the shooter was known to be barricaded. Surveillance footage showed officers dawdling in the hallway outside for more than an hour.
Described by Texas state officials as the incident commander on the scene, Arredondo has stoutly defended himself, saying he did know he had been in charge. After he was fired by the Uvalde school board in Aug. 2022, his attorney described the vote as an “illegal and unconstitutional public lynching.”
The Express-News was unable to reach Arredondo for comment. Gonzales hung up when called by a reporter.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
This post was originally published on Daily Beast
