Pedro ‘Pete’ Arredondo, the Uvalde school district’s embattled police chief, was fired Wednesday following allegations that he made several critical mistakes during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s board of trustees said it voted unanimously to dismiss police Chief Arredondo.

Who is Pedro ‘Pete’ Arredondo?

Arredondo is a 25-year law enforcement veteran who currently serves as District Police Chief Pedro in Uvalde. He is 50 years old.

He was recently elected to the city council. He reportedly received 70% of the vote and defeated three other candidates. 

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Arredondo was a police captain at Laredo’s United Independent School District for about three years before joining the Uvalde school district in early 2020.

He was also third in command at the Webb County Sheriff’s Office and was in charge of the Laredo school district’s north side. He briefly worked as a detective. 

He worked for the Uvalde Police Department for 16 years in various capacities.

Arredondo studied at a high school in Texas and went on to earn a degree in organisational management from Southwest Texas Junior College and Texas A&M Commerce, as per Express-News.

After graduating from the SWTJC law enforcement academy in 1993, his first job was as a 911 dispatcher for the Uvalde Police Department.

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Arredondo is now at a crossroads, as he faces mounting criticism from his community for his agency’s response to one of the country’s worst mass shootings.

According to Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Arredondo believed the shooter had barricaded himself and that the children were not in danger.

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McCraw stated – “From the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision. It was a wrong decision. Period. There was no excuse for that .“There were plenty of officers to do what needed to be done, with one exception, is that the incident commander inside believed he needed more equipment and more officers to do a tactical breach at that time.”

Arredondo has not spoken publicly about the shooting ever since being blamed for his agency’s faulty response. On Friday, CNN attempted to contact Arredondo at his home but received no reply.