(Reuters) – Local school officials in Texas are expected to vote to fire Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo over his response to the mass shooting at an elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers, according to a media report Wednesday.
The city’s school board is set at a meeting scheduled for Saturday to terminate Arredondo for his mismanaged reaction to the May shooting at Robb Elementary School, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a source.
School district Superintendent Hal Harrell, who according to the Texas Tribune has recommended that Arredondo be fired, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. An attorney for Arredondo also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The school board’s website included a link to a special meeting scheduled Saturday but offered no information about what would be discussed.
Parents of children killed in the shooting demanded officials fire Arredondo during a Monday school board meeting.
As many as 19 officers waited for over an hour outside classrooms as the gunman continued shooting until a U.S. Border Patrol-led tactical team entered and killed the shooter.
A report by the Texas state legislature found “systemic failures” and poor leadership contributed to the death toll.
“The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon,” it said.
State police officials have sharply criticized Arredondo, the police chief of the school district’s six-man police force, who state police have said was in control of the scene.
The legislature’s report said hundreds of officers from agencies that were better trained and better equipped than the school police force also failed.
“Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach(Arredondo) or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance,” the report stated.
(Reporting By Brendan O’Brien; additional reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Leslie Adler)
