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Uvalde police chief who delayed during school shooting steps down | Police News


Mariano Pargas, who has come under scrutiny for his response to a deadly Texas school shooting, has resigned following calls to resign.

Officer Uvalde, who was leading the US city police department during the time of hesitation law enforcement response A city spokesman said an elementary school shooting left 19 children dead and two teachers resigned.

Mariano Pargas retired Thursday afternoon after 18 years with the city, according to spokeswoman Gina Eisenberg. She said he was retiring immediately but the city was still processing the paperwork.

Pargas is the second police chief Leave law enforcement in the fallout since the murder in May when hundreds of officers waited more than an hour to confront the gunman inside a classroom at Robb Elementary School. His retirement comes ahead of a meeting on Saturday at which the city council will consider firing him.

Pargas could not be immediately reached for comment. He previously told CNN that his lawyer instructed him not to speak publicly, but “there are so many things that I can explain… I’d love to defend myself.”

The city placed Pargas, who was running the department in the shooting because the police chief, Daniel Rodriguez, was out of town, taking administrative leave in July after a accursed reports from legislators about police response.

His passing took place a few days later New sound is highlighted that Pargas was informed that there were children alive in the classroom with the gunman half an hour before the police broke into the room.

In the months following the shooting, state officials blamed the school district’s chief of police, Pete Arredondo, saying he had made “bad decisions” as the commander at the scene not confront the gunman sooner.

Arredondo was fired in August but has said he don’t consider yourself person in charge and assumed that someone else had controlled the police response, which eventually grew to nearly 400 officers.

Audio recordings released by CNN show that as officers gathered around the school, a dispatcher told Pargas that there were “eight to nine” children still alive in the classroom where the attacker was hiding. . Pargas could be heard admitting the information, but it took more than 30 minutes before a tactical team entered and killed the gunman.

Authorities say the gunman did most of his scenes within minutes of entering the classroom, but it is unclear whether official statistics on the number of children in the room survived.

Corina Camacho, whose son was shot but survived, told the Associated Press that 11 children were not killed and that their families were trying to stay in touch. Children have publicly recount playing dead to avoid being noticed by the shooter.

In addition to Pargas’ retirement and Arredondo’s dismissal, the victim’s family and several lawmakers have in recent months called for the resignation or firing of Steve McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Body camera footage, a legislative investigation and media reports have shown state police have a larger role at the scene than the department appeared to suggest shortly after the explosion. gun.

Ninety-one DPS soldiers were among the 376 law enforcement officers who eventually responded. Seven people have been investigated internally since the attack, but McCraw has defended his agency’s overall response, says it “doesn’t fail” Uvalde.

At a meeting Wednesday of the Uvalde County commissioner’s court, Community members call for Pargas resign from the council. Pargas, who was re-elected to the county government on November 8, was absent from the meeting, Uvalde Leader-News reported.

Berlinda Arreola, whose 10-year-old niece Amerie Jo Garza was killed, said Pargas needed to do the “right thing” and step down, according to CNN.

Arreola said: “He was a coward back then and now he is too cowardly to show his face.

At the school board meeting on the same day, Josh Gutierrez was appointed interim police chief of the Uvalde school district. Gutierrez will lead a number of officers who have been hired since the shooting. The five officers involved in the law enforcement response have been assigned other duties pending the results of an investigation into their actions that day.

Interim Director Gary Patterson opened the meeting by talking about the bravery shown by the families of the victims. Patterson replaces Hal Harrell, who announced plans to retire last month.

“We have all the respect in the world for how you handle things in the worst case scenario,” says Patterson.

The school district trustees on Wednesday also approved the location of the new school to replace Robbie Elementary School, decided it would be built next to another school a few kilometers away. The council decided to demolish Robb Primary School months ago and on Wednesday recommended the formation of a committee to decide what would happen to the site.

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