In battered Uvalde, where a police chief is in hiding, grief gives way to calls for accountability

Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. UVALDE — Everyone in town is waiting to hear from Pete Arredondo. As chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, it was his call to wait more than an hour for backup instead of ordering officers on scene to immediately charge the shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. The chief of the state police later said this was the “wrong decision, period.” Now, Arredondo is a man in hiding, as calls for answers and accountability grow louder each day. In the week since state police singled him out for blame, Arredondo has hardly been seen. Police officers stand guard outside his home. He has declined to explain his actions, telling a television crew that staked out his office he would not do so until after the victims’ funerals. City officials, too, have assisted in the vanishing act. They canceled a previously scheduled public ceremony Tuesday and instead swore in Arredondo in secret for his latest role on the City Council. Even state police complained this week that Arredondo has remained elusive…
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