Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo placed on leave

The man in charge of the disastrous police response to the Texas school shooting was placed on administrative leave Wednesday.

Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief, will be on leave until multiple investigations into the shooting are completed, Uvalde CISD superintendent Hal Harrell said in a press release.

Arredondo will be temporarily replaced by Mike Hernandez, Harrell said.

Shortly after the shooting, Arredondo was sworn into the Uvalde city council. He tried to take a leave of absence from the council at a meeting Tuesday night but other members rejected it.

The Texas Senate and the federal Justice Department are among the agencies investigating the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School, where Salvador Ramos, 18, killed 19 children and two teachers.

Arredondo was the commander on the scene that day and told officers to wait outside two classrooms while Ramos massacred children. One of the officers under Arredondo’s command, Ruben Ruiz, tried to storm in to save his wife, Eva Mireles, but was stopped and detained.

Texas state police leader Steve McCraw ripped into Arredondo at a Texas Senate hearing on Tuesday.

“The only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander, who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” McCraw said. “The officers had weapons; the children had none. The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none.”