The school district police chief who held officers back during Tuesday’s chilling massacre is set to join the Uvalde City Council, according to reports.
Officer Pete Arredondo’s bungled orders resulted in the slowed response of at least 19 cops at Robb Elementary School, where a gunman opened fire and killed 19 students and two teachers, according to NBC News.
Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde City Council in the municipal election on May 7 after tallying up nearly 70 percent of the vote, Uvalde Leader-News reports.
At a news conference on Friday, Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, implied Arredondo’s orders caused the police force’s slow response to the mass shooting.
Arredondo, is the Chief of Police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and oversees eight schools, was not at the news conference.
McCraw, who did not name Arredondo, said the police chief mistakenly believed it had become a barricade or hostage situation. The only evidence anything had changed was that the shooting had slowed.
“With the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course, it was not the right decision, it was the wrong decision, period,” McCraw said. “There was no excuse for that.”
“The incident commander at the time believed it was a barricaded subject, they had time and there were no kids at risk.”
“It was the wrong decision, period. There was no excuse for that.”
Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.