Uvalde CISD suspends entire district police department
UVALDE, Texas - Uvalde CISD has announced it has suspended its entire district police department pending the results of two investigations.
Uvalde CISD PD activities have been suspended "for a period of time," says the district in a release. Currently employed officers will be filling other roles in the district during the suspension.
In addition, two employees were placed on administrative leave: acting district police chief Lt. Miguel Hernandez and director of student services Ken Mueller, who "has elected to retire," according to the district.
Two investigations are underway concerning the UCISD police department: a management and organizational review by the Texas Police Chiefs Association and an investigation into the UCISD police response to the May 24 shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.
The district says the TPCA review results will guide them in rebuilding the department and hiring a new chief of police and those results are expected later this month. The JPPI investigation results will inform future personnel decisions.
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Additional Texas DPS troopers have been requested for campuses and extracurricular activities and the district says it is "confident that staff and student safety will not be compromised during this transition."
This announcement comes just a day after Uvalde school officials abruptly fired Crimson Elizondo, a former Texas state trooper who was on scene of the Robb Elementary School massacre and then was later hired by the school district.
Elizondo was among more than 90 state troopers — and nearly 400 law enforcement officers in all — who rushed to Robb Elementary during the massacre but waited more than an hour to confront a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle shooting inside a fourth-grade classroom.
In a report from CNN, Elizondo is heard in police body camera footage telling other officers at the scene of the shooting: "If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside. I promise you that."
This decision also comes almost two months after the district's school board voted to fire Pete Arredondo, who had been UCISD police chief at the time of the shooting.