Disgraced Ex-Chief of Uvalde PD Wins Appeal, Enables Disgusting Possibility

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Ex-Uvalde, Texas, Police Chief Pete Arredondo was fired for cause after his department’s failed response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, but now he has been handed a victory in court and will have the blot on his record expunged.

The ruling does not entitle Arredondo to get his job back, but it does allow him to claim that he has a clean record should he try to seek another job in law enforcement or a related field, according to ABC News reporter Patrick Linehan.

Arredondo, of course, was the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief when a crazed gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary in May of last year. The chief was criticized for his timid response to the crime as it was ongoing, especially the decision to leave officers standing idle in the hallway as the killer holed up in a classroom with students and teachers.

The former official was quickly fired by the Uvalde School Board for the department’s failed response to the tragedy.

Upon his firing, the district filed its termination report detailing Arredondo’s failings and the reason for his termination, as required by Texas state law. Arredondo’s firing was classified as “dishonorable” in the report filed with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. But inherent in the process is an appeal phase by which a fired officer can have the classification reconsidered.

According to ABC, Arredondo filed his appeal a month after his firing — despite near universal criticism of his actions. And court documents now show that he won his case when a decision was filed at the end of January, which held that the former chief was entitled to have his termination classification upgraded to a less negative status.

Arredondo repeatedly blasted his critics in the wake of his firing, calling opposition to his tenure as chief a “public lynching.” Indeed, Arredondo insisted that he should have been immediately reinstated once he was fired.

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