Former Uvalde school police chief moves to dismiss criminal charges connected to massacre
The former Uvalde, Texas, school district police chief charged in connection with the botched police response to the 2022 school shooting rampage filed a motion Friday to have the indictment thrown out.
The former chief, Pete Arredondo, who was the on-site commander the day of the shooting, was arrested in June on 29 charges of abandoning and failing to protect children. He has pleaded not guilty.
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales was arrested on the same charges and also pleaded not guilty.
The new eight-page motion focuses on the overarching question of whether Texas criminal statutes can be invoked to charge both Arredondo and Gonzalez. The Uvalde case represents the first time Texas penal laws have been used to file these types of criminal charges.
"While the indictment may attempt to invoke a duty by alleging Mr. Arredondo was the incident commander 'on a school campus which was under his control,' such an allegation may invoke a moral duty to perform his job well, but it fails to invoke a legal duty," according to the motion. "'Moral imperatives are not the functional equivalent of legal duties.'"
The motion said, "The indictment fails to allege an offense, and the indictment fails to give Mr. Arredondo the constitutionally required notice necessary to allow him to prepare a defense."
"The indictment does not allege that Mr. Arredondo engaged in any conduct that placed a child in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment," the motion said. "To the contrary, the language in the indictment itself makes clear that when Mr. Arredondo responded as part of his official duties, an active shooter incident was already in progress and that an active shooter was already hunting and shooting a child or children in Room 112 at Robb Elementary School."
Two teachers and 19 students were killed in the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School. Law enforcement waited some 77 minutes at the scene before breaching a classroom and killing the gunman.
The indictment alleges that, after hearing shots fired, Arredondo failed to identify the situation as an active shooter, failed to respond as trained and instead called SWAT, which delayed the law enforcement response.
The indictment also alleges he chose to negotiate with the gunman instead of engaging; failed to timely provide keys and breaching tools; failed to determine if the classroom door was locked; failed to follow the school district's active shooter policy; and failed to develop an immediate action plan.
The next court date in the criminal case is set for Sept. 16. No hearing has been scheduled yet on the motion to dismiss the indictment.
