Uvalde, Texas – A former school district police chief in Uvalde, Texas, is facing felony charges following an indictment related to his handling of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary in 2022. The tragic event resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers. The indicted former police chief, Pete Arredondo, and ex-school police officer Adrian Gonzales are accused of abandoning and endangering a child in connection with their response to the shooting.
District Attorney Christina Mitchell shared that one of the officers is expected to surrender to authorities today, with the other likely to do so tomorrow. This indictment represents the first legal action taken against police officers involved in responding to the school shooting, which lasted over an hour before law enforcement took down the shooter.
Arredondo was removed from his position as chief in August 2022, while Gonzales was no longer working for the district by January 2023, six months after the tragic incident occurred. The families of the victims of the shooting reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde recently, as their attorney emphasized that bankrupting the city was not their intention.
The incident at Robb Elementary in May 2022 prompted nearly 400 officers from various levels of law enforcement to respond. The shooter was ultimately stopped by Border Patrol agents after 77 minutes. The Justice Department’s report highlighted several failures in leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy, and training during the response to the shooting.
An independent review of law enforcement’s actions during the shooting, published in March, identified issues with the officers’ response but cleared over 20 Uvalde police officers of any wrongdoing, stating that they had acted in good faith and did not violate department policies. The ongoing legal proceedings and investigations surrounding the tragic event continue to shed light on the complexities of law enforcement responses to mass shootings.