Uvalde school police chief resigns from city council

Pete Arredondo, the chief of police of the Uvalde, Tx., school district, resigned from the city council of that town this week, according to media reports on Saturday. 

The Uvalde Leader-News reported on the resignation on Saturday, quoting Arredondo as saying that he had "decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3."

"The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions. I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde,” he said, according to the paper. 

Arredondo has received harsh international criticism for his leadership of the Uvalde school district police at the time of the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School, where 19 students and two teachers were murdered by a gunman who locked himself in the school. 

Responding officers waited outside the classroom for over an hour before deciding to breach the quarters where the gunman had barricaded himself, by which point more than 20 people had been killed. 

Arredondo is already on leave from his role as school district police chief, having been placed there last week by the distrct.