The Uvalde, Texas, Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez, reportedly submitted his resignation to the city during a meeting Tuesday, which will be effective on April 6, according to reports.
The Uvalde Leader-News reported that Rodriguez nor city administrators specified why the chief was resigning, though the decision comes just days after the city released a report clearing officers of any wrongdoing in the tragic shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022.
Reports said that hundreds of law enforcement officers waited 70 minutes on site, before a team breached the fourth grade classroom and confronted the 18-year-old gunman, who had been armed with an AR-15 style rifle and fired more than 140 rounds inside the school.
Uvalde police officers and other law enforcement officers are seen responding to a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in a bodycam video recorded on May 24, 2022. (Uvalde Police Department)
Since the shooting, body camera video, school surveillance footage and witness accounts have shed light on law enforcement’s belated response.
Also, since the shooting, five officers in Texas have been fired or resigned.
FILE – Flowers are piled around crosses with the names of the victims killed in a school shooting as people visit a memorial at Robb Elementary School to pay their respects May 31, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. For the first time since the Uvalde school massacre, Texas Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, allowed proposals for stricter gun laws to get a hearing in the state Capitol — even though new restrictions have almost no chance of passing. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
At the time of the shooting, Rodriguez was in Phoenix on a scheduled vacation.
Rodriguez said in his resignation letter that he was moving on to a new chapter in his career after leading the police department since 2018, when he was promoted to chief, the publication reported.
UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING: ONE YEAR LATER
Uvalde police officers and other law enforcement officers are seen responding to a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in a bodycam video recorded on May 24, 2022. (Uvalde Police Department)
Jesse Prado, an experienced investigator from the Austin, Texas area, conducted the Uvalde City Council report which investigated the Uvalde Police Department’s response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in May 2022.
Prado determined that none of the initial five Uvalde police officers who responded to the shooting violated policy or committed serious acts of misconduct.
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The five Uvalde police officers were identified as Sgt. Donald Page, who was one of the first officers to discover children in other classrooms in the hallway, on-site commander Peter Arredondo, Lt. Javier Martinez, Uvalde Detective Louis Landry and Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales.
The review pointed to non-comprehensive law enforcement training, faulty communication and poor equipment as responsible for the fumbled response.