Next post
A grand jury has indicted Uvalde’s former School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former officer Adrian Gonzales over the deadly school shooting two years ago.
A grand jury has indicted two former Uvalde school police officers in the botched law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, two Texas state government sources with knowledge of the indictment told CNN Thursday.
Former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arrendondo and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales were named in the indictments, which represent the first criminal charges filed in the school massacre.
The two officers face felony charges of abandoning and endangering a child, Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell told the Uvalde Leader-News, and one of them was expected to surrender later Thursday.
As we’ve written multiple times since that tragic day, it is just mind-boggling that the response to the shooting took SEVENTY SEVEN minutes. There were injured children and teachers who could’ve been saved. Yet the officers in charge stood there and did nothing! There were other responding officers who wanted to and tried to go in, but were stopped.
Wow. Eva Mireles, a Uvalde teacher, called her husband and told him she had been shot and was dying.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) June 22, 2022
Her husband, a police officer, tried to take down the shooter but was detained by other officers and had his gun taken away. https://t.co/fPgfra6n5z
Sadly and infuriatingly, we may never know the true reasons why those officers completely ditched all their training and incident response protocols that day. And no, the excuse that Arredondo didn’t realize that HE was the incident commander doesn’t pass the smell test.
That said, this indictment is, in my opinion, a step in the right direction. Especially as reports show those officers knew where everyone was in that school.
Emergency services audio and police communications obtained by the Texas Tribune and ProPublica showed Gonzales was among the officers made aware by 11:48 a.m. that teacher Eva Mireles had been shot in room 112. Less than 15 minutes after the shooter entered the building, Gonzales said over radio that a suspect was in Mireles’s classroom.
Ten counts of child endangerment doesn’t seem like much unless you look at the lives shattered because the officers stood down instead of trying to save the teachers and their students.
This indictment only addresses the huge problems over the law enforcement response as in standing around dithering for 77 minutes. What this doesn’t address is the problems with the medical teams response that showed a very disjointed and chaotic response. I will note that some of the problems the medics had was likely due to the extreme lack of information coming from law enforcement.
Most if not all the officers with that department were either fired or resigned after the tragedy. Does that mean they shouldn’t be held accountable? They should in my opinion. They all had the necessary training and yet did nothing.
While most of the parents have settled with the city of Uvalde and have lawsuits pending against law enforcement agencies as well as Meta and Daniel Defense, this indictment is another step towards closure.
'It's an emotional day'
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) June 28, 2024
Jesse Rizo, uncle of Uvalde victim Jackie Cazares, reacts to the indictments of former Uvalde CISD PD Chief Pete Arredondo and former Uvalde officer Adrian Gonzales.
Full story: https://t.co/zZCmYfWCgo pic.twitter.com/sSDaF29GxK
I can’t imagine. As to if there’s really going to be closure? That depends upon the results of the trial itself.
On Uvalde police indictments, @moodyforelpaso (vice-chair, House Robb Elementary Shooting Investigative Cmte) tells me Arredondo failed the families, and he hopes "the way this is handled provides them with justice and closure, not prolonged suffering." #txlege
— Monica Madden (@themonicamadden) June 27, 2024
Will Joe have anything to say about this indictment? At least the DOJ actually investigated this tragedy and concluded what we all knew, the police f**ked up royally.
The indictments come more than two years after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire in a fourth-grade classroom, where he remained for more than 70 minutes before officers confronted and killed him. In total, 376 law enforcement officers massed at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, some waiting in the hallway outside the classroom, even as the gunman could be heard firing an AR-15-style rifle inside.
This indictment is a step towards justice for the 18 children and two teachers who were tragically killed by a madman on May 24, 2022.
Feature Photo Credit: Robb Elementary, 2015. Don Holloway/flickr/cropped/CC BY 2.0.
Scott says: Good that these two clowns were charged. Don’t know about the Meta lawsuit, but the one against Daniel Defense is blatantly illegal, as it clearly violates the Protection of legal commerce in Arms act… not sure why a judge hasn’t thrown it out already, but they damn sure should
GWB says: They haven’t thrown it out because they’ve had some other successful lawsuits in defiance of it. As long as someone is striking gold, you keep digging.
Yeah-Me-Neither says: They do not want me on that jury. While they physically were present, they were taking the king’s dime while refusing to place their lives on the line. If there were a death penalty, they would deserve it. As it is, take every dime they have and confine them for as long as possible.
GWB says: charges of abandoning and endangering a child
Oof. That’s going to be pushing it. SCOTUS a bunch of years ago basically said that, despite oaths, a police officer has no duty to protect or save anyone. I guarantee that will come up in their defense. It’s not a good look, but it might hold up – and you generally can’t appeal a not guilty verdict. (The primary argument will be that those laws apply to someone legally placed into the position of guardian over children – daycare workers, parents, actual school officials, etc. – and not to cops.)
have lawsuits pending against … Daniel Defense
Yeah, THAT should not be happening. It’s a desperate lashing out against anyone to get something back for their losses. We used to disbar lawyers that exploited survivors with these kinds of suits. Locking them in a tank with a bunch of hungry sharks would not be inappropriate. And that’s before we even get to the legislation specifically protecting them from such suits.
As to if there’s really going to be closure?
No. Closure can only come from actually dealing with the loss in a constructive way. Not by vengeance – though vengeance can certainly help take the edge off.
It might be a step toward justice. But I doubt it will be enough for all of those parents.
Cameron says: Sadly and infuriatingly, we may never know the true reasons why those officers completely ditched all their training and incident response protocols that day.
Complete and utter cowardice. The simple explanation is usually the best one.
There were other responding officers who wanted to and tried to go in, but were stopped.
Those officers should have been killed for that. I’m not being hyperbolic; they deliberately stopped an attempted rescue of people who were being murdered and they should have been met with overwhelming force.
5 Comments