School District Police Chief For Uvalde Resigns From City Council: Texas Tribune Reporter Claims Many Want More

Politics Reporter at the Texas Tribune Zach Despart said that residents of Uvalde want Police Chief Pete Arredondo to take even further action after resigning from Uvalde City Council on Friday, amid controversy.

Reported by Uvalde Leader-News, Arredondo stepped down from his position in a released letter addressed to the city.

“After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3,” wrote the police chief.

Arredondo continued, “The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions. I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde.”

“Together, we will keep Uvalde strong. Uvalde strong, Uvalde home,” he concluded.

Arredondo, the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department, was only elected to the District 3 city council position a few weeks prior to the shooting that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers on May 24th. He was officially sworn in just a week following the devastating events at Robb Elementary School.

According to Despart, many of the residents of Uvalde “had expressed disappointment in his conduct,” since the school shooting.

Many allegations have come forth since the events of that day, claiming Arredondo holds chief responsibility for the flawed law enforcement response to the active shooter. The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Col. Steven McCraw, argued that the police chief made “terrible decisions,” leading to the police response being an “abject failure.”

Despart told CNN’s Phil Mattingly that many “expressed disappointment that the city has not been forthcoming and releasing records about what happened.”

The Texas Tribune reporter said that although many residents of Uvalde “were grateful that finally, Chief Arredondo stepped down from his position on the city council,” they want further action to be taken.

“Many of them also want him to step down from his actual full-time job which is the Police Chief of the school’s police department,” said Despart.

Arredondo has maintained that he was not the incident commander on May 24th and has attempted to defend his actions in an interview with the Texas Tribune. The police chief claims that he never ordered officers to stand down.

The police chief was placed on administrative leave on June 22nd and resigned just over a week later. A replacement for Arredondo will be chosen in a special election, according to the city charter.

Watch above via CNN