Uvalde school superintendent recommends firing police chief Pete Arredondo

The superintendent of Uvalde, Texas, schools has recommended that Pete Arredondo, the school district’s police chief, be fired in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary massacre. 

According to the school board’s meeting agenda released Wednesday, a special meeting will be held on Saturday to decide on Arrendondo’s future, following the recommendation of superintendent Hal Harrell. 

A source told CNN that Uvalde’s school board is expected to vote to terminate Arredondo, who was placed on administrative leave by the district last month. 

The school board’s agenda says it will meet at 10 a.m. for “discussion and possible action regarding termination for good cause as recommended by the Superintendent.”

The superintendent’s announcement comes after community members and parents addressed the school board in a special meeting on Tuesday, calling for the firing of Arredondo and other district officers, saying that the school board needs to “clean house”. 

“If he’s not fired by noon tomorrow, I want your resignation and every single one of these board members because you don’t give a damn about us or our children,” Uvalde resident Brett Cross, whose niece died in the incident, told the school board. 

The meeting followed a report released by a Texas House investigative committee that found “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making” from local authorities in response to the May 24 mass shooting.

The gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in a fourth-grade classroom. Police who responded to the shooting spent more than an hour in the hallway before confronting the shooter.

Arredondo, who recently resigned from his position with Uvalde’s city council, said in an interview that he does not believe he was the officer in charge at the scene.

The Hill has reached out to Harrell’s office and the Uvalde school district for comment.