Uvalde City Council to consider granting newly-elected councilman Pete Arredondo leave of absence from meetings

UVALDE, Texas — The Uvalde school district police chief who’s been widely criticized for his handling of the mass shooting that ended with 19 children and two teachers dead will be the subject of a city council meeting this week. According to its agenda Tuesday’s meeting, the Uvalde City Council will consider granting the newly-elected Pete Arredondo a leave of absence from future council meetings. It’s not clear if Arredondo asked for the leave.

He was elected to the city council before the Robb Elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Arredondo was sworn in privately a few days after the shooting. He didn’t attend his first council meeting held two weeks after the massacre.

SPECIAL COVERAGE: Uvalde school shooting The DPS says it was Arredondo who made the decision not to breach the classrooms where the shootings happened, even as children inside the school called 911 pleading for help. It was 70 minutes later when a border patrol agent finally killed the 18-year-old gunman. On Friday, two Uvalde CISD police officers and a teacher who were at Robb Elementary when the shooting happened spoke to a special legislative committee investigating the school massacre.

RELATED: Law enforcement addresses police response in front of committee investigating Robb Elementary School shooting “The gravity of it, it really is immeasurable, does not have words or significance that I can express,” Committee Chairman Dustin Burrows said after visiting the growing memorial to the shooting victims. The committee, once again, pledged its commitment to provide grieving families with answers to questions that have only multiplied since officials released contradictory information about the shooting. Specifically, why police waited more than an hour to confront the killer? RELATED: Denied and delayed: Agencies object to release of public records in Uvalde shooting investigation The search for answers in the school shooting is facing roadblocks as agencies continue to delay and deny public records requests.

KHOU 11 Investigates sent local, state and federal agencies a dozen letters containing 50 records requests about the shooting over the past three weeks, but most have been met with resistance. “Obviously, we’re not seeing much transparency out of the governmental bodies, the public officials that were involved in the in the response to the shooting,” said attorney Joe Larsen. “It’s the lack of transparency.

That’s really where these governmental institutions are trying to subvert our democratic way of life by restricting the information that we need to be able to address the ills of our society, the problems of our institutions. ” The Texas Department of Public Safety , the City of Uvalde and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office have all objected to KHOU requests about 911 calls, police body camera footage, police disciplinary records and dispatch recordings. Those requests have all been sent to the Attorney General’s Office for review.

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