Uvalde CISD officials announced today that a board meeting to discuss the termination of Police Chief Pete Arredondo has been scheduled for next week.
The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 to discuss the termination. The meeting will be open to the public and a stream will be available on KSAT.com.
The hearing has twice been rescheduled at the request of Arredondo’s attorney due to scheduling conflicts, according to Uvalde CISD Communications and Marketing Director Anne Marie Espinoza.
The chief’s fate was supposed to have been originally decided on July 22 but Arredondo’s lawyer asked the district to postpone the meeting amid due-process concerns. It was rescheduled for Aug. 4, but that meeting was also put off.
Arredondo was placed on paid administrative leave one month after the massacre at Robb Elementary School. He was later placed on unpaid leave.
Superintendent Hal Harrell recommended Arredondo’s firing after he was largely blamed for the botched law enforcement response to the May 24 shootings.
Arredondo is the chief of a six-person department, and he was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the Robb Elementary shooting — the worst school shooting in Texas history. Law enforcement waited over an hour before entering a classroom to confront the shooter.
Surveillance video from inside of the school captured the law enforcement response unfolded on that tragic day. A Texas House committee report alleged that Arredondo should’ve taken charge, as no one else was set to be in command.
It also states that responding officers “lacked clear leadership, basic communications and sufficient urgency” to encounter the gunman.
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