United States: Police officer charged 2 years after Uvalde school shooting

The former police chief of the Uvalde school district in Texas, southern United States, has been charged with child endangerment more than two years after the city’s school shooting, reports said. several American media on Thursday.

In May 2022, a man armed with an assault rifle stormed an elementary school in Uvalde, killing 19 children aged 9 to 10, and two teachers aged 44 and 48.

In the aftermath, the delay in police intervention to stop the massacre provoked anger and incomprehension, with the 19 officers on site awaiting the assault by a specialist unit.

“Failure of Chess”

Pete Arredondo, 52, has been charged with child abandonment and endangerment, multiple US media outlets reported, citing judicial sources. Along with Pete Arredondo, former school police officer Adrian Gonzales was also named in the indictment, CNN reported.

A prison official declined to comment to AFP and the prison did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In January 2024, the US Department of Justice acknowledged a “cascade of failures” in the response of law enforcement in this shooting.

Following the Uvalde massacre, as well as other killings that shocked the country, the US Congress passed a law establishing new restrictions on gun ownership, the most significant in nearly 30 years, but far short of what President Joe Biden wanted. In May, the families of the children killed and injured in the massacre reached a two million dollar settlement with the municipality of Uvalde.

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