Two former Uvalde school police officers are set to appear in court for a pretrial hearing later this month for their response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of child endangerment in July. He was the presumed incident commander on the day of the shooting that saw nearly 400 officers wait 77 minutes to approach and kill the gunman.
Arredondo failed to show incident command training, according to the Department of Justice's critical incident review from earlier this year.
He told the Texas Tribune weeks after the shooting that he did think he was the incident commander.
Arredondo recently filed a motion to have his criminal indictment thrown out, claiming that the indictment has no legal grounds, is confusing and blames him for the shooter’s actions.
"The victims were already in imminent danger by another," read the motion filed by Arredondo and his lawyers.
Another former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child endangerment in connection to the failed response to the shooting.
Arredondo and Gonzales are the only two officers being charged with the botched response that has left a stain on the community. Questions remain on whether the officers can receive a fair trial in Uvalde or whether it will be moved to San Antonio.
The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16th.
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