Former Uvalde police chief charged in botched response to shooting

Local media reported that a former officer, Adrian Gonzales, was also charged. The charges were first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not respond to requests for comment.

The attack was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Texas leaders initially praised the response by law enforcement, but later acknowledged that officers waited 77 minutes to confront the 18-year-old shooter, sparking outrage.

In January, the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing 575-page report criticizing local police commanders and state law enforcement for failing to immediately enter the classroom and kill the shooter . Attorney General Merrick Garland said “lives would have been saved” if officers had responded quickly.

Officers arrived at the school but quickly retreated in the face of gunfire, deciding to treat the shooter as a barricaded suspect and wait for backup. Meanwhile, officers spent about 40 minutes searching for a key to a classroom that federal assessors said was likely unlocked the entire time.

From the start, much of the blame was placed on Arredondo, who at the time headed the Uvalde school system's police force. The former chief repeatedly asked officers who tried to enter the classroom to stop, according to the review, because he believed there were other victims from neighboring classrooms who should be expelled first.

Arredondo defended his response, saying he did not believe he was in charge. But the Justice Department review concluded that Arredondo was the “de facto commander on the scene” and failed to deliver.

The poorly organized response also hampered emergency medical personnel’s attempts to quickly treat victims. Delays in the medical response were highlighted in a 2022 Washington Post investigation with the Texas Tribune and ProPublica.

A Post investigation found that the overall delay in enforcement was due to inaction by a range of senior management and supervision of law enforcement officers, some of whom are still on duty and had direct knowledge of a shooting taking place in classrooms, but failed to quickly stop the shooter.