The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District approved Josh Gutierrez as its interim police chief Wednesday night.
Uvalde CISD interim Superintendent Gary Patterson recommended Gutierrez due to his background in law enforcement and education, KPRC’s sister station KSAT reported.
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“One of the things that is very impressive about Josh is he decided, after a few years in law enforcement -- he decided to go back to school. He received a teacher certification and a principal certification,” Patterson said.
In August, the Uvalde school board fired school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was criticized for his response to the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary.
Arredondo was one of the first law enforcement officers to respond to the shooting. He was listed in the district’s active-shooter plan as the incident commander. The consensus of a report conducted by a Texas House committee was that Arredondo did not assume the role of commanding officer, nor did anyone else, which resulted in a chaotic law enforcement response.
Nearly 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers descended upon the school. Dozens of them assembled in the hallway outside the classrooms where the gunman was located. It took more than an hour before law enforcement entered the rooms where the gunman was located, the The Texas Tribune And Propublica reported.
In total, 19 children and two teachers were killed in the worst school shooting in Texas history.
In October, Uvalde’s school district suspended its entire police force over the law enforcement response to the shooting.