Automobiles on Aug. 25, 2022 cross crosses positioned to honor the victims of the shootings at Robb Elementary College in Uvalde, Texas.
Eric Homosexual/AP
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Eric Homosexual/AP
Automobiles on Aug. 25, 2022 cross crosses positioned to honor the victims of the shootings at Robb Elementary College in Uvalde, Texas.
Eric Homosexual/AP
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Division of Public Security fired an officer Friday who was on the scene of the Uvalde college bloodbath and turns into the primary member of the state police pressure to lose their job within the fallout over the hesitant response to the Might assault.
The division served Sgt. Juan Maldonado with termination papers, spokeswoman Ericka Miller stated. No particulars have been supplied about his function on the scene of the Might 24 taking pictures at Robb Elementary College or the particular motive Maldonado was fired.
The firing comes 5 months after the mass taking pictures that has put state police below scrutiny over their actions on the college campus as a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 youngsters and two academics.
Maldonado couldn’t be reached for remark Friday evening.
Physique digicam footage and media reviews have proven the Division of Public Security had a bigger function on the scene than the division appeared to recommend after the taking pictures. State troopers have been among the many first wave of officers to reach however didn’t instantly confront the gunman, which specialists say goes towards normal police process throughout mass shootings.
As an alternative, greater than 70 minutes handed earlier than officers lastly stormed inside a fourth-grade classroom and killed the gunman, ending one of many deadliest college assaults in U.S. historical past. Almost 400 officers in all finally made their strategy to the scene, together with state police, Uvalde police, college officers and U.S. Border Patrol brokers.
Seven Division of Public Security troopers have been put below inner investigation this summer season after a damning report by lawmakers revealed that state police has extra 90 officers on the scene, greater than another company.
Steve McCraw, the Division of Public Security director, has known as the regulation enforcement response an “abject failure” however put many of the blame on former Uvalde college police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was fired in August and could be seen on physique cam video looking out in futility for a key to the classroom door which will been unlocked all the time.
However the Uvalde mayor, mother and father of the victims and a few lawmakers have accused the Division of Public Security of making an attempt to reduce its personal failures.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district contains Uvalde, reacted to information of the firing by saying that accountability within the division shouldn’t finish there.
“Ninety extra to go, plus the DPS director,” he stated.
Gutierrez has sued the division in an effort to acquire paperwork surrounding the response to the taking pictures. A number of media retailers, together with The Related Press, have additionally requested courts to compel authorities and Uvalde officers to launch information below public data legal guidelines.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s up for reelection in November, has stood by McCraw and stated throughout a September debate there wanted to be “accountability for regulation enforcement at each degree.” A spokesperson for Abbott didn’t return messages in search of remark concerning the firing.
One of many state troopers put below inner investigation was Crimson Elizondo, who resigned and later was employed by Uvalde faculties to work as a campus police officer. She was fired lower than 24 hours after outraged mother and father in Uvalde discovered about her hiring.
