Uvalde schools police chief charged with child endangerment

Hundreds of police officers were present as a mass-shooter killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Unwilling to take on the shooter, they stood back for more than an hour without taking action, prioritizing their own safety and ignoring their training until federal officers arrived and put an end to Salvator Ramos's rampage. After years of anguish and recrimination, one of the police commanders responsible finally faces legal consequences for their cowardice, inaction and ineptitude: Pete Arredondo, Uvalde's former school police chief, was indicted Thursday on a charge of child endangerment.

Pete Arredondo, 52, was taken in by law enforcement officers and is accused of abandoning and endangering a child, the jail said. The charge was first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. The Uvalde jail confirmed Arredondo was being booked into the facility Thursday afternoon. Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said Thursday night that Arredondo was released on bond. Arredondo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was unclear whether an attorney is representing him. Early this year, the Justice Department released a 600-page report that said poor coordination, training and execution of "active shooter" protocols led to a "failure" in the response of the Uvalde officers who rushed to the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022.

Come for the insane multiplicity of police agencies there—city police, school police, state police, the ostentatiously useless SWAT team pictured below, all well-paid. Stay for the decade-long legal grind it will take before any of them are held accountable for doing absolutely nothing.