UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The former schools police chief in Uvalde, Texas, who has asked a judge to throw out charges accusing him of failing to take action during the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, is expected back in court Thursday.
Pete Arredondo, 52, has pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment and abandonment. U.S. law enforcement officers rarely face a criminal trial over their actions during a school shooting.
The May 24, 2022, attack on Robb Elementary that killed 19 students and two teachers was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The law enforcement response, which included nearly 400 federal, state and local officers, has been widely condemned as a massive failure.
Arredondo’s attorneys argue he is being prosecuted for trying to save lives, including ordering the evacuation of other areas of the school. They argue the indictment would open many future law enforcement actions to similar charges.
“It cannot possibly be an offense that Mr. Arredondo evacuated some children before others could be saved,” his attorneys wrote in a court filing. “If the state is allowed to proceed in this manner, all Texas peace officers should be terrified.”
Uvalde County prosecutors have urged the judge to reject Arredondo's claim.
Another Uvalde schools officer who was on the scene that day, Adrian Gonzales, 51, was indicted on similar charges and has also pleaded not guilty. They are the only two officers facing charges over the police response. Gonzales is also expected to attend the hearing in Uvalde.
It is unclear if Judge Sid Harle will rule on Arredondo's request on Thursday or later. The hearing is also expected to cover defense requests for access to evidence and witnesses, and other pretrial matters.
While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. More than an hour later, a team breached the classroom and killed the gunman.
The indictment against Arredondo accuses the former chief of ignoring his active shooter training, and delaying the police response while the shooter was “hunting victims," despite being told that injured children were in the classrooms and that a teacher had been shot.
Instead of immediately confronting the 18-year-old gunman, Arredondo called for a SWAT team, ordered the initial responding officers to leave the building, and briefly attempted to negotiate with the shooter, the indictment said.
Once Arredondo knew of the shooter and the imminent danger to students in the classroom, "Texas law demands urgent intervention to remove the child from the danger,” prosecutors argued.
Gonzales faces similar charges in a 29-count, separate indictment that accuses him of failing to protect victims who were killed, as well as those who survived. Gonzales' legal team has not yet asked the court to throw out his charges, but could at a later date.
Each charge against the officers carries up to two years in jail. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Associated Press reporter Jim Vertuno contributed from Austin, Texas.
Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
FILE - This combo of booking images provided by Uvalde County, Texas, Sheriff's Office, shows Pete Arredondo, left, the former police chief for schools in Uvalde, Texas, and Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. (Uvalde County Sheriff's Office via AP, file)
FILE - A couple visits murals created to honor the victims of the shootings at Robb Elementary School, Aug. 25, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas official who is an informal adviser to President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on immigration issues doesn't expect mass deportations to prompt arrests of migrants at sensitive locations such as schools and churches.
But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach does expect Trump to take action that will spark a legal challenge over the citizenship status of children born in the U.S. to immigrants living in the country illegally. He also expects Trump to encourage local and state law enforcement officers to help with efforts to arrest and detain migrants.
Kobach has for two decades been one of the most influential lawyers in the Republican movement to restrict illegal immigration. He is also a longtime Trump supporter who could be a key ally given federal immigration authorities' need for state and local cooperation to carry out Trump's promise of the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
He said Wednesday that he's in regular contact with Trump's team, including Tom Homan, Trump's pick for border czar, and Stephen Miller, incoming deputy White House chief of staff for policy. He made his comments during an interview with The Associated Press. Here are excerpts:
Critics of Trump’s mass deportation plans argue that he’s promising to remove millions of immigrants from the U.S. and that’s logistically not possible. But Kobach and other Trump allies think only a portion of those migrants would have to be deported for the effort to succeed.
KOBACH: “Once there’s a massive enforcement effort going on, then a lot of people start leaving on their own.”
“You can put a multiplier on that number, and it’ll be a much greater number. They will start leaving on their own because they don’t want to get arrested. They want to leave on their own terms, and so I don’t know — we don’t know — what that multiplier number is going to be, but there will be one.”
Immigrant rights advocates worry the Trump administration will rescind a longstanding policy of avoiding arrests of migrants at sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and houses of worship.
KOBACH: “I haven’t heard this. ... First of all, I don’t think that you are likely to see K-12 students being arrested. It’s going to be the adults that are going to be the focus of the removals."
“There are some places that are better to make an arrest than others. There are reasons why the policy of a police department is different with regard to a high-speed chase in a neighborhood versus a high-speed chase on a highway. So I think they’re probably going to have to make decisions as to which ones involve the least risk to the public.”
Birthright citizenship means that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, whatever the legal status of their parents. Trump has promised to end it, though others say the 14th Amendment enshrines it in the U.S. Constitution.
KOBACH: “Whatever the Trump administration does will certainly be litigated because it’s one of those hot-button issues.”
“I believe that the Trump administration has every intention of addressing this issue, in his second term.”
The Trump administration would need the help of state and local officials in its efforts to deport millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
A provision in federal immigration law allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make agreements with state and law enforcement agencies to deputize and train officers to arrest migrants.
KOBACH: “They can provide a force multiplier to the federal government, and I think that is the biggest and best thing that the states and counties can do to help. ... The point is, it casts a daily net.”
“I don’t see how a massive deportation program can possibly succeed without it."
President Joe Biden's administration cut the number of beds that ICE had for detaining immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. However, in August, the agency issued requests for information about the potential for new detention centers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, documents show.
Trump could seek new contracts with counties to keep immigrants in their jails, and Kobach said he's previously worked as a lawyer for some Texas counties with bigger jails than they need for local offenders.
KOBACH: "The Trump administration, the people in the immigration sphere, are well aware of this problem, and I've talked to them."
“A few of those (Texas) counties have a really big facility, jail, and the reason it’s so big is they want to contract with other counties and with the federal government.”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who's informally advising President-elect Donald Trump's transition team, discusses immigration issues during an interview with The Associated Press, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in his office in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach pauses during an interview with The Associated Press about how he's advising President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on immigration issues, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, in his office in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
