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AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Division of Public Security has fired an officer 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 Could assault.
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Sgt. Juan Maldonado was served with termination papers Friday, stated Ericka Miller, a division spokeswoman. The firing comes 5 months after the capturing at Robb Elementary Faculty that has put state police below scrutiny over their actions on the campus as a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers.
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Physique digicam footage and media studies have proven that DPS had a bigger function on the scene than the division appeared to recommend after the Could 24 capturing. State troopers have been among the many first wave of officers to reach however didn’t instantly confront the gunman, which consultants say goes in opposition to customary police process throughout mass shootings.
As a substitute, 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 ultimately made their strategy to the scene, together with state police, Uvalde police, college officers and U.S. Border Patrol brokers.
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Maldonado couldn’t be reached for remark Friday evening.
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Seven DPS troopers have been put below inside 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 DPS director, has known as the regulation enforcement response an “abject failure” however put a lot of the blame on former Uvalde college police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was fired in August and will be seen on physique cam video looking out in futility for a key to the classroom door which will been unlocked your complete time.
However the Uvalde mayor, dad and mom of the victims and a few lawmakers have accused DPS of attempting to reduce its personal failures.
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district consists of Uvalde, reacted to information of the firing by saying that accountability within the division shouldn’t finish there.
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“Ninety extra to go, plus the DPS director,” he stated.
Gutierrez has sued DPS in an effort to acquire paperwork surrounding the response to the capturing. 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 info legal guidelines.
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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 looking for remark concerning the firing.
One of many DPS troopers put below inside investigation was Crimson Elizondo, who resigned and later was employed by Uvalde colleges to work as a campus police officer. She was fired lower than 24 hours after outraged dad and mom in Uvalde discovered about her hiring.
