Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo was demoted at Webb County Sheriff’s Office earlier in career – Law Officer

UVALDE, Texas – Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo was demoted at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office eight years before he incompetently led the controversial law enforcement response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, according to reports.

Arredondo “couldn’t get along with his coworkers, especially upper staff,” Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar told the San Antonio Express-News. The sheriff also said he demoted Arredondo from assistant chief to commander in 2014.

“The basic thing I want to say is he just didn’t fit the qualifications or the work that I set out for him,” Cuellar said, according to the news outlet.

Arredondo has been heavily criticized for his response during the May 24 massacre, which claimed the lives of 21 people. Police failed to breach the classroom door containing the 18-year-old mass murderer for 77 minutes after arriving on scene.

The Texas legislature issued a report last month that found Arredondo had “failed to perform or to transfer to another person the role of incident commander.”

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw testified before the special committee in June, denouncing the police response an “abject failure,” Law Officer reported.

“There’s compelling evidence that the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary was an abject failure and antithetical to everything we’ve learned over the last two decades since the Columbine massacre,” McCraw said.

Weeks after the massacre, Arredondo said he didn’t consider himself the incident commander, Law Officer reported.

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