First Published:
2:51 PM PDT, May 31, 2022
The embattled police chief of Uvalde, Texas, is now under police protection amid controversy surrounding how authorities responded to the deadly school shooting massacre that left 21 people dead.
Chief Pete Arredondo is facing national condemnation for allegedly telling cops to hold off taking down the elementary school shooter until reinforcements arrived.
Even his own neighbor is quoted as calling him “a coward” who “didn’t do his job” and “failed the children,” the New York Post reported.
Arredondo was due to be sworn in Tuesday as a newly elected member of the city council, after being voted into office prior to the shooting. But the mayor announced that the ceremony has been canceled, because he says it would coincide with the funerals of the first victims.
Meanwhile, haunting new video shows a student who escaped the carnage rushing to police.
Other video obtained by ABC News shows the school’s honor roll ceremony, which took place one hour before the shooting erupted. A boy who made the honor roll was a hit by a bullet during the shooting, but survived.
The massacre of 19 children and two teachers is continuing to cause jitters across the country.
Police in Lee County, Florida, took the unusual step of releasing a mugshot of a 10-year-old arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot up his school.
In Brooklyn, New York, spectators at a big boxing match ran for their lives at the Barclays Center, but it turned out to be a false alarm — nothing more than a loud noise that sparked false fears of gunfire. Ten people were injured in the stampede.
Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who was there, wrote on Twitter, “We were being yelled at that there was an active shooter and we had to huddle in a room and close the doors. I was so…terrified.”
Hollywood is also taking steps to be sensitive to the situation.
The fourth season of the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things,” began with a warning because of a scene involving dead children. “Given the recent tragic shooting a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing,” it said.
A scene involving a slain teacher in the new Disney+ show “Obi-Wan Kenobi” prompted an onscreen statement: “In light of recent tragic events, we recognize there are certain scenes in this fictional series that some viewers may find upsetting.”
Over the weekend, at least 39 people were shot to death around the country, 13 of them in Philadelphia alone.
