Former Police Chief and Officer Indicted for Child Endangerment in School Shooting Response

In a sobering follow-up to last year's tragedy, former Uvalde school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, alongside former police officer Adrian Gonzales, have been indicted on charges connected to the inadequate police response during the Robb Elementary School shooting. Arredondo, who has already faced termination, was booked on 10 counts of child endangerment, with Gonzales facing 29 counts of the same nature. According to Valley Central, Arredondo turned himself in last Thursday and was released from Uvalde County Jail on a $10,000 surety bond.

In what seems to painfully underscore the tragedy, it took law enforcement approximately 77 minutes to actively breach the classroom and confront the shooter. The indictment of the two officers appears to be directly connected to this delayed response. Arredondo, who claims he did not know he was the incident commander despite policy indications, was released shortly after booking. Yet, this indictment seems to finally begin to steadfastly hold accountable those involved in the botched law enforcement effort.

An I-team report by Fox San Antonio drills into the discrepancy in the counts of charges against the two men. Uziyah Garcia's guardian, Brett Cross, expressed that he had learned from the District Attorney's Office the differentiation of charges. Arredondo received one count for each surviving student from Classroom 112, ostensibly because "He wasn’t there before the actual shooting started taking place but he was the de facto incident commander so that is where his charges lie," Cross informed Fox San Antonio. In contrast, Gonzales' 29 counts correspond to every student who was killed or survived in Classrooms 111 and 112, because “He was there before the shooting had started, had seen the shooter and didn’t stop or do anything that would maybe slow him down or prevent him from continuing and ultimately killing our kids. If he would have acted then our children could still be here,” said Cross.

The Department of Public Safety's investigation resulted in disciplinary action against two of its 91 officers who responded to the massacre. Tim Maloney, a legal expert not involved in this case, “You are in effect, laying out the roadmap for the jury in order, in order for them to get a better picture of exactly what happened,” as reported by Fox San Antonio. Although former officer Gonzales completed two active shooter training and was once an instructor, the training has been retired due to critical backfire concerning its content – an indictment not only of individual action but of systemic preparation.

Nonetheless, it is the families who remain vigilant in the face of unresolved grief. Brett Cross continued, "It's literally been up to us, the families, to get anything done, and that is the only reason why anything's been done."