The Uvalde officer who was leading the city’s police department during the hesitant law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers has stepped down
In the months after the shooting, state officials have focused blame on the school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, saying he made “terrible decisions” as the on-scene commander not to confront the gunman sooner. Arredondo was fired in August but has said he didn’t consider himself the person in charge and assumed someone else had taken control of the police response that eventually swelled to nearly 400 officers.
In addition to Pargas' and Arredondo's ousters, victims families and some lawmakers have called in recent months for the resignation or firing of Col. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Body camera footage, a legislative investigation and media reports have shown the state police had a larger role at the scene than the department appeared to suggest in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
At a school board meeting Wednesday, Josh Gutierrez was named interim chief of police for the Uvalde school district. Gutierrez will lead the handful of officers who have been hired since the shooting. Five officers who were part of the law enforcement response were assigned other duties pending the outcome of an investigation into their actions that day.
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