The Uvalde School District board voted unanimously to fire police chief Pete Arredondo on Wednesday following pressure over his actions during the Robb Elementary School shooting in May.
The police response to the Texas shooting, which led to the deaths of 19 children and two teachers, has been under close scrutiny since the May 24 massacre.
Parents have criticized Arredondo, the school district police chief, as officers waited more than 70 minutes to confront the 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, who was armed with an AR-15-style rifle.
Following the vote by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's board of trustees, parents and family members of the children killed expressed their relief but also their frustration at the situation.
Ruben Torres, the father of Chloe Torres, who survived the shooting, said he did not understand why officers did not take action when leadership failed, according to an Associated Press report.
He added: "Right now, being young, she is having a hard time handling this horrific event."
Shirley Zamora, the mother of a student at Robb Elementary, said more needed to be done following Arredondo's dismissal.
"This is just going to be the beginning. It's a long process," she said.
Another relative of one of the children killed during the shooting called for further action after Arredondo's termination, according to a report in The Texas Tribune.
Vicente Salazar, the grandfather of Layla Salazar, said:" We need to take Uvalde back for our people."
He said that the Uvalde County Sheriff, Ruben Nolasco, should also be fired.
Jazmin Cazares, sister of victim Jackie Cazares, took to Twitter to say the decision was welcome but late.
"We appreciate the school board for FINALLY listening to us, but we aren't going to applaud them for doing something that should have been done MONTHS ago," she tweeted.
Jesse Rizo, Jackie Cazares' uncle, took issue with Arredondo asking to be reinstated from suspension with backpay. He also said other law enforcement should be held accountable.
"The audacity. Who would come up with that? You didn't have a car wreck into a stop sign. You had a loss of life. 21 of them," he told The Texas Tribune.
Arredondo had been on administrative leave since June 22 and was forced into resigning from his recently won seat on the Uvalde City Council.
Arredondo did not attend the meeting on Wednesday but ahead of the decision his lawyer, George Hyde, released a 17-page statement defending him.
The statement praised Arredondo for the lives he was able to save.
"Chief Arredondo will not participate in his own illegal and unconstitutional public lynching and respectfully requests the Board immediately reinstate him, with all backpay and benefits and close the complaint as unfounded," the statement said.
"Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn't reach in time, and not for lack of effort.
"There was only one person that caused this, the shooter. Recognizing that it was the Chief, Pete Arredondo, who warned the district over a year before this event of the vulnerability of the district to such an incident, [he] should not be waiting with his head on the chopping block because what he feared happened," it added.
Newsweek has contacted Hyde for further comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Gerrard Kaonga is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter and is based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on U.S. ... Read more
