Pete Arredondo, the school police chief during the May mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is accusing local officials of conducting a public “lynching” in an attempt to fire him without due process.
Mr Arredondo, the head of the school’s police force, declined to attend a Wednesday meeting of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District board, where local officials will consider terminating his contract.
State officials have called the police chief’s leadership during the shooting, which killed 21 people, an “abject failure”.
The chief cited procedural and security concerns for skipping the meeting, and his attorney called the process an “illegal charade strategically designed to infringe on Chief Arredondo’s ability to speak freely to clear his name” in a statement.
On Wednesday, the board, whose proceedings can be streamed online, went into a closed session to consult with its attorneys about the termination process and Mr Arredondo’s criticisms. A decision on the chief’s contract is expected to be announced on Wednesday evening.
Community members gathered in Uvalde for the meeting and called for the school police chief to be fired.
“If law enforcement’s job is to protect and serve, why didn’t they protect and serve my friends?” a girl named Kaitlin Gonzalez told school board members during a public comment session portion of the evening.
“Turn in your badge and step down,” she added, referring to Mr Arredondo. “You don’t deserve to wear one.”
The chief has been on unpaid administrative leave from the school police department since 22 June, and resigned his position on the city council in early July. A decision by the council regarding Mr Arredondo’s contract has been on the agenda since July, but was postponed twice at the request of the chief’s attorney.
In his statement on Wednesday, the school police chief claimed officials investigated him and recommended his firing without offering proper written justification or notice. Mr Arredondo also claimed he hadn’t been given a proper public forum to defend his reputation against criticisms of misconduct and ineptitude.
The Independent has contacted the UCISD for comment.
Mr Arredondo, who state officials say was the on-scene commander during the police response to the shooting, has faced intense scrutiny and criticism for his leadership on 24 May. Officials and investigations have painted a chaotic picture of Mr Arredondo’s decisions during the massacre, the second worst school shooting in US history.
Even though the Uvalde school district had held active shooter training two months before the May massacre, and spent nearly $70,00 in recent years on security upgrades, officers still appeared woefully unprepared.
A group of heavily armed officers with assault rifles and body armour waited more than an hour to breach the adjoined classrooms where gunman Salvador Ramos was hiding, as panicked children called 911 from inside.
The officers were waiting for more backup and for keys to the classrooms, even though officials say a door to the rooms was already unlocked. Mr Arredondo initially lacked a working radio.
He has faced multiple calls to resign from community members in Uvalde.
“Having Pete still employed, knowing he is incapable of decision-making that saves lives is terrifying,” Brett Cross, the uncle of Uvalde victim Uziyah Garcia, said during a school board hearing in June. “Innocence doesn’t hide, innocence doesn’t change its story, but innocence did die on May 24.”
In July, a Texas House of Representatives panel investigating the shooting issued a report faulting the nearly 400 police on scene at Robb Elementary School for “egregious poor decision making” and “an overall lackadaisical approach.”
The school police chief has said he didn’t consider himself the on-scene commander, and that officers never hesitated to try and keep the children in Uvalde safe.
“Not a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” he told the Texas Tribune in June. “We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.”
On Wednesday, he also claimed the school district ignored his recommendations about making security upgrades like doors with key card access and taller fencing. He added that he shouldn’t have properly been considered incident commander because Ramos began the day by non-fatally shooting his grandmother, meaning the incident began before it was on school police jurisdiction.
“The incident command allegations are patently false and are intended to distract and shift blame,” the school police chief’s attorney said in his statement.
State and federal officials continue to investigate the law enforcement response to the shooting.
This week, Uvalde families filed a $27bn lawsuit against the Uvalde school district, multiple law enforcement agencies, a gun store, and a gunmaker tied to the shooting.
