Former Uvalde school police chief charged over mass shooting response

A former school district police chief in the US state of Texas has been charged and arrested over the response to a 2022 elementary school shooting that left 21 people dead, including 19 children, US media reported Thursday.

Pete Arredondo, 52, is accused of abandoning and endangering a child and was booked at the Uvalde County Jail, NBC News reported, citing jail authorities.

A duty officer at the jail declined to comment, referring AFP to the booking office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed in the city of Uvalde on May 24, 2022 when a teenage gunman went on a rampage with an AR-15 style assault rifle at Robb Elementary School, in America's deadliest school shooting in a decade.

Alongside Arredondo, former school police officer Adrian Gonzales was named in the grand jury indictments, CNN reported.

Family members of the victims have been meeting with prosecutors to discuss the results of the months-long grand jury investigation, CNN said.

Police in Uvalde have been under intense scrutiny since it emerged that more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour outside classrooms where the shooting was taking place and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.

A total of 376 officers -- border guards, state police, city police, local sheriff departments and elite forces -- responded to the massacre, a Texas state lawmakers' report said in July 2022.

A damning US Justice Department report released earlier this year cited "critical failures" in the response.

School shootings have become a regular occurrence in the United States, where about a third of adults own a firearm and regulations on purchasing even powerful military style rifles are lax.

Polls show a majority of voters favor stricter controls on the use and purchase of firearms, but the powerful gun ownership lobby is opposed to additional restrictions.