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A school board meeting to determine the future of Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo was delayed for the second time on Wednesday, more than two months after 19 children and two adults were killed at Robb Elementary School.
Arredondo – who has faced harsh criticism from state law enforcement, teachers, and the Uvalde community for his response to the shooting – was placed on unpaid administrative leave in June.
The termination hearing was scheduled for Thursday after being pushed back from July 23.
“However, to once again ensure Pete Arredondo’s due process rights are met, the District has agreed to postpone the second date of the hearing at the request of Pete Arredondo’s attorney due to a scheduling conflict,” an Uvalde school district spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement on Wednesday.
Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo speaks at a press conference following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
(Mikala Compton/USA TODAY NETWORK via REUTERS)
Arredondo will remain on unpaid leave as school officials determine a new date for the hearing.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw has blamed Arredondo, who was the on-scene commander, for the more than 70-minute delay in confronting the shooter.
“Three minutes after the suspect entered the west building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject,” McCraw told a special Texas State Senate committee. “The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111, and 112, was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.”
Arredondo told a separate House committee investigating the shooting that a classroom adjacent to rooms 111 and 112 was empty, so he didn’t think there were children in the classroom with the gunman.
“Although the encounter had begun as an ‘active shooter’ scenario, Chief Arredondo testified that he immediately began to think of the attacker as being ‘cornered’ and the situation as being one of a ‘barricaded subject,'” lawmakers wrote in the report.
“With the benefit of hindsight, we now know this was a terrible, tragic mistake.”
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Only one other law enforcement officer, acting Uvalde police chief Lt. Mariano Pargas, has been placed on administrative leave in the wake of the shooting.
Robb Elementary School principal Mandy Gutierrez was suspended in the wake of the House committee report, but she was reinstated just days later after responding to the school district’s questions about her actions.
Arredondo did not respond a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
