Who is Peter Arredondo? Uvalde police chief who delayed officer response faces criticism online

The decision not to enter the Uvalde elementary school was supposedly taken by the school district police chief, officials said. The district police chief is Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, aka Peter Arredondo.

Arredondo was mentioned on the Uvalde school district website as the police chief and was introduced as the police chief at news conferences in the hours following the shooting.

Addressing the media on May 27, Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that the concerned officer made the "wrong decision" by engaging with the gunman sooner. However, he did not name the responsible officer in the presser.

Speaking about the decision taken by the official, McCraw said,

"From the benefit of hindsight, where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period. There's no excuse for that."

He went on to say,

"There were plenty of officers doing what needed to be done, with one exception being that the incident commander inside believed he needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that time."

According to McCraw, the school district police chief believed there was no active threat. So, instead of sending officers in, he assigned himself the task of finding the keys that would let him into the school. Unfortunately, this allowed the shooter to carry out the attack without much resistance. It eventually led to the death of 19 students and two teachers.

Steven McCraw called Arredondo's decision "wrong." (Image via Getty)

McCraw also stated that children inside classrooms 111 and 112 of the elementary school were constantly calling 911 and pleading for help.

The Uvalde Robb Elementary School shooting has been referred to as the deadliest school massacre since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting.

When asked whether Arredondo was present at the scene at the time of the shooting, McCraw refused to comment.

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People demand Arredondo's resignation following Uvalde school shooting

While the community is yet to come to terms with the horror that unfolded on May 24 and tries to piece together the conflicting timeline of events, scrutiny has shifted to Arredondo. He is being criticized for how he handled the response to the Uvalde school massacre.

Demands for his resignation have flooded Twitter; social media users are calling him a "coward" and "incompetent."

State investigators are also looking into whether Arredondo even had a police radio on him when he made the decision, a law enforcement source told The Post.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated that he had demanded a full report of what happened during the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde. But he also mentioned that he could not take the call on whether the school district's police chief should be fired.

Abbott said,

"As far as his employment status is concerned, that's something that is beyond my control and I have no knowledge about. Every act of all of these officials will be known and identified and explained to the public."

Arredondo has not spoken publicly about the Uvalde shooting. The only time he made an appearance was during two very brief press statements on the day of the shooting. At news conferences, Arredondo did not even take questions before those gathered.

Arredondo has nearly three decades of law-enforcement experience, according to the school district, and was recently elected to a seat on Uvalde's city council.

The board of trustees for the school district had approved Arredondo to head the department in 2020. Back in March, Arredondo posted on Facebook that his department was hosting an "Active Shooter Training" at Uvalde High School with hopes of preparing local law enforcement to respond to "any situation that may arise."

Given the backlash being faced by Arredondo, he is reportedly staying at home with security guarding the area.