Former Uvalde, Texas, school police chief charged in fatal shooting

By Brad Brooks and Jasper Ward

(Reuters) – A grand jury in Uvalde, Texas, indicted the school district's former police chief, Pedro Arredondo, over the police response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 students and two teachers, authorities announced Thursday.

The Uvalde County Sheriff's Office said Arredondo was in custody and charged with 10 counts of child endangerment.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been criticized for their failed response to the May 24, 2022, shooting. Officers left the 18-year-old gunman alone in a classroom with children for more than an hour while they considered how to confront him. By the time officers stormed in, the school had become the scene of one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

Another law enforcement officer, Adrian Gonzales, was also indicted by the grand jury, according to local media reports. The sheriff's office said Thursday that Gonzales had not yet been charged and could not provide any details about his situation.

The charges against Arredondo, known as “Pete,” and Gonzales are the first criminal complaints filed against responding officers.

Uvalde County Attorney Christina Mitchell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mitchell confirmed to the Uvalde Leader-News that Arredondo and Gonzales have both been charged. She told the newspaper that more details would be provided once Gonzales is arrested, which she said would happen Friday.

Federal and state investigations into the school shooting have condemned the inaction of responding officers.

In May, victims' families filed lawsuits against Meta, Activision Blizzard and its parent company Microsoft, as well as weapons maker Daniel Defense, for what they claim was collusion in marketing weapons to youth.

In an advisory released earlier this week declaring gun violence in the country a public health crisis, the U.S. surgeon general noted that it has been the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the country since 2020. He also noted that the gun death rate among young people in the United States is 11 times higher than in France, 36 times higher than in Germany and 121 times higher than in Japan.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward and Brad Brooks; Editing by Donna Bryson, Eric Beech and Leslie Adler)