The former police chief of Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, has been charged over his response to the 2022 shooting.
SCOTT DETROW, HOSTESS:
Two years after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a grand jury there has indicted former Robb Elementary police chief Pete Arredondo. School police officer Adrian Gonzales has also been charged. The charges focus on the men's role in the botched response to the shooting, when 376 officers had to wait more than an hour to confront the gunman. Texas Public Radio's Kayla Padilla has been reporting from Uvalde and is with us now. Good afternoon.
KAYLA PADILLA, BYLINE: Good afternoon.
DETROW: The grand jury has been deliberating for five months. What are the charges against these two law enforcement officers?
PADILLA: Well, right now we only have access to the indictment against former police chief Pete Arredondo. Former school officer Adrian Gonzales has yet to turn himself in. They are both charged with child abandonment and endangerment the day of the shooting, which is a felony here in Texas.
And Arredondo was supposed to be the incident commander, but the U.S. Department of Justice has labeled him as someone who failed to perform his assigned duties. So now he faces a 10-count indictment, including failing to identify an active shooter, failing to maintain an active shooter plan, and mismanaging time and resources, further delaying the response. So he turned himself in Thursday and posted the $10,000 bond.
DETROW: How have the families of the people who were shot there reacted?
PADILLA: So victims' families have really been waiting to hear the details of this investigation. District Attorney Christina Mitchell didn't really say much during the grand jury deliberations. Mitchell and her team have had access to evidence that could answer one of the biggest questions emerging from the shooting: Would some of those children and teachers still be alive today if police had acted faster? Now, some of those children were still alive when police and EMS finally reached them, so parents still wonder if they would have survived if police had acted faster. These charges are huge for the families and could bring them closer to the answers they are looking for.
DETROW: Yes. What are they saying here more broadly about police accountability?
PADILLA: I think the families of the victims are happy to finally see these changes. They've been fighting for two years for police accountability, and they've criticized the district attorney for not being transparent. I just spoke with parent Adam Martinez, whose son survived the Robb shooting. He thinks this charge is a good start.
ADAM MARTINEZ: You know, eventually, children died. Some of them still had a heartbeat, but they were sitting there waiting after they had already called. So I mean, anyone who was in charge, trained, and didn't follow protocol should at least be fired.
DETROW: These were the first criminal charges. Do you feel like there could be more?
PADILLA: Well, the families are hoping for more charges, but I think this has really reinvigorated their fight. I mean, just last month the families filed a series of lawsuits. They are suing UPS and FedEx for shipping the gun the gunman used in the massacre. They are suing Facebook's Meta, the video game company that created the first-person shooter Call Of Duty, and Daniel Defense, the gun manufacturer that made the shooter's weapon. I think this is a huge and hopeful moment for them. I see parents posting pictures of their children online and saying, this is what I'm fighting for.
DETROW: That's Kayla Padilla from Texas Public Radio. Thank you very much.
PADILLA: Thank you.
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