“Because of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective on this date,” Harrell wrote in the announcement to the media.
Lt. Mike Hernandez is assuming the duties of the UCISD Chief of Police, Harrell said.
The superintendent wrote that he had intended to wait for an investigation to be finished before making personnel decisions.
“Today, I am still without details of the investigations being conducted by various agencies,” he wrote.
Arredondo testified Tuesday behind closed doors in Austin to a Texas House committee seeking answers to what happened May 24 when 21 people were gunned down at an elementary school, but has not spoken publicly about his decision-making on the day of the shooting.
The school district’s announcement comes a day after the Uvalde City Council, of which Arredondo is a new member, voted to deny his request for a leave of absence.
Harrell is not alone in appearing to be frustrated by the lack of information from investigators.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Tuesday slammed the Texas Department of Public Security (DPS) for its lack of transparency and accused its director, Col. Steven McCraw, of intentionally minimizing his agency’s mistakes in the weeks following the massacre at Robb Elementary School.
“Col. McCraw has an agenda and it is not to present a full report on what happened and give factual answers on what happened to this community,” he added.
In addition, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat representing the County of Uvalde, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against DPS, arguing the agency violated the Texas Public Information Act when his request for information on the shooting was ignored.
“In the wake of the senseless tragedy, the people of Uvalde and Texas have demanded answers from their government. To date, they have been met with lies, misstatements, and shifts of blame,” the lawsuit states.
The DPS director accused Arredondo, who McCraw and others have identified as the on-scene commander, of ordering police to wait in a nearby hallway for unnecessary equipment and keys to a door that was not even locked.
“Three minutes after the subject entered the West building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract and neutralize the subject,” McCraw said. “The only thing stopping the hallway of dedicated officers from entering rooms 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children.”
Yet authorities have repeatedly changed their account of key facts about what happened inside the rooms and what police did in response during those 77 minutes.
McLaughlin said that the repeated misstatements and blame-shifting from Texas authorities was dividing the community and frustrating grieving families
“What matters to Uvalde is that these brokenhearted families and this grieving community get a full investigation…
