First two officers indicted two years after Texas school massacre
2 Min Read
The two officers have been charged with multiple counts of felony child endangerment and abandonment for their slow response during the 2022 Uvalde school shooting.
-
Police officers speak near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 27, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)
Former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arrerdondo and former police officer Adrian Gonzales were indicted on Thursday due to their slow response to a school massacre at a Texas elementary school in 2022, which killed 19 children and two teachers.
Arredondo and Gonzales were charged with multiple counts of felony child endangerment and abandonment by a grand jury, according to reports from the Uvalde Leader-News and the San Antonio Express-News. The indictments will be kept under seal until the men, who are expected to surrender by Friday, are in custody.
The Robb Elementary School shooting took place on May 24, 2022, when 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire on a fourth-grade class in what is known as America's worst shooting in a decade. According to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help throughout the attack, which lasted for 77 minutes.
In a report released in July 2022, Texas state lawmakers slammed Arredondo by saying he "did not assume his preassigned responsibility of incident command" and made analytical errors because he did not have all the necessary information.
They claimed that during the shooting, no other officers offered to assist or replace Arredondo. Seventy-three minutes elapsed between the first officers' arrival and the shooter's death; an "unacceptably long period of time."
Bodycam footage of the school massacre
A body camera footage captured the sound of another gunshot four minutes later, at 11:44 am. The first ballistic shield arrived at 11:52 am, as officers grew impatient to act. According to the publications, Arredondo struggled to find a key to the classroom door despite the fact that no one is thought to have attempted to unlock the door.
Another officer with a ballistic shield arrived at 12:03 pm, followed by another two minutes later. Arredondo is heard musing aloud, about 30 minutes before authorities finally broke down the classroom door at 12:50 pm, if the gunman may be shot through a window.
According to the publications, Arredondo only told the tactical team members to breach the door when they were ready at 12:46 pm.
