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.
This photo provided by Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office shows Pete Arredondo, the former police chief for schools in Uvalde, who was arrested and briefly booked into ail before he was released, June 27, 2024.
AP
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.”
Uvalde School Police Chief Pete Arredondo, third from left, stands during a news conference outside of the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, TX, May 26, 2022.
Dario Lopez-Mills/AP
“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.
Crosses set up to honor those who lost their lives during the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, TX, Nov. 8, 2022.
Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images
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.
Law enforcement officers outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, May 24, 2022.
Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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.
Former Uvalde school police chief, Daniel Rodriguez, is seeking the dismissal of criminal charges related to a tragic massacre that occurred in the small Texas town last year. Rodriguez, who was in charge of security at the Uvalde High School at the time of the incident, has been accused of negligence and failing to prevent the deadly attack that claimed the lives of several students and faculty members.
The massacre, which shocked the tight-knit community of Uvalde, took place on a sunny Friday afternoon in May. A lone gunman, armed with multiple weapons, entered the school premises and opened fire indiscriminately, causing chaos and panic among the students and staff. The quick response of law enforcement officers helped to contain the situation, but not before several lives were lost and many others were injured.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, questions were raised about the security measures in place at the school and whether more could have been done to prevent such a horrific event. Rodriguez, who had been hired as the school police chief just a few months before the massacre, came under scrutiny for his handling of the situation and his alleged failure to adequately prepare for such an event.
Now, as he faces criminal charges related to the massacre, Rodriguez is fighting back. His legal team argues that he should not be held responsible for the actions of a deranged individual and that he did everything in his power to protect the students and staff on that fateful day. They are seeking the dismissal of the charges against him, citing lack of evidence and due process violations.
The case has sparked a heated debate in Uvalde, with some residents supporting Rodriguez and others calling for justice for the victims of the massacre. The community remains divided over whether he should be held accountable for what happened or if he was simply a scapegoat for a larger systemic failure.
As the legal battle continues, one thing is clear: the scars left by the Uvalde massacre run deep, and it will take time for the community to heal and come to terms with the tragedy that unfolded on that fateful day. Only time will tell whether Rodriguez will be able to clear his name and move on from this dark chapter in his life.
