UVALDE, Texas – A termination hearing for Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo scheduled for Thursday has been postponed for a second time.
According to Anne Marie Espinoza, executive director of Communications and Marketing for the district, the hearing was postponed at the request of Arredondo’s attorney due to a scheduling conflict.
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“Arredondo will continue to remain on unpaid leave until a new date and time can be scheduled for the proposed termination hearing,” Espinoza said.
The chief’s fate was supposed to have been originally decided on July 22 but Arredondo’s lawyer asked the district to postpone the meeting amid due-process concerns.
Superintendent Hal Harrell recommended Arredondo’s firing after being blamed for the botched law enforcement response to the massacre at Robb Elementary School that claimed 21 lives on May 24.
Arredondo was placed on paid administrative leave by the district nearly one month after the shooting. Lt. Mike Hernandez has since resumed his duties.
Since the shooting at Robb Elementary, the Uvalde community has criticized the school board for not holding Arredondo accountable and a lack of security at the school prior to the shooting, The Associated Press reports.
Arredondo is the chief of a six-person department, and he was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the Robb Elementary shooting -- the worst school shooting in Texas history. Law enforcement waited over an hour before confronting the shooter, and the blame has largely fallen on Arredondo.
A Texas House committee recently released a report on the shooting response and the surveillance video from inside of the school that captured how the law enforcement response unfolded on that tragic day. The report alleges that Arredondo should’ve taken charge, as no one else was set to be in command.
It also states that responding officers “lacked clear leadership, basic communications and sufficient urgency” to encounter the gunman, the AP reports.