The Uvalde City Council has canceled Tuesday鈥檚 special meeting where three new council members were scheduled to be sworn in.
One of the newly elected officials is Pete Arredondo, the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District鈥檚 .
The Texas Department of Public Safety has said Arredondo led the response to the school shooting. He has received backlash for not allowing officers to confront the shooter for over an hour.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said Monday in a statement the meeting was canceled out of respect to the funerals taking place.
鈥淥ur focus on Tuesday is on our families who lost loved ones,鈥� McLaughlin said. 鈥淲e begin burying our children tomorrow, the innocent victims of last week鈥檚 murders at Robb Elementary School.鈥�
In his statement, McLaughlin also hinted support for Arredondo, and said he was duly elected to the City Council.
鈥淭here is nothing in the City Charter, Election Code, or Texas Constitution that prohibits him from taking the oath of office,鈥� McLaughlin said. 鈥淭o our knowledge, we are currently not aware of any investigation of Mr. Arredondo.鈥�
Arredondo leads a police department of five.
During the shooting at Robb Elementary, Arredondo was in charge of the police response. At one point, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety, 19 officers were inside the school, but were prevented from confronting the shooter and going into the classroom where the shooter was.
Arredondo has not talked publicly since the day of the shooting.
Gov. Greg Abbott last week claimed he was 鈥渕isled鈥� by law enforcement officials when they initially briefed him about the police response.
"I wrote down hand notes in detail about what everybody in that room told me in sequential order about what happened,鈥� Abbott said last week when confronted by reporters. 鈥淎nd when I came out here on this stage, and told the public what happened, it was a recitation of what people in that room told me."
On Saturday morning, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in an he was also given a 鈥渄ifferent set of facts than we now know.鈥�
鈥淲hether that was purposeful or whether that was because 鈥� that was about 24 hours after the shooting, because they were still in a state of chaos and maybe had not had any sleep and were in shock and misremembered things,鈥� Patrick said. 鈥淭he bottom line is we have to have the facts and the truth because it only makes the situation worse for the families when they hear changing stories.鈥�
But McLaughlin on Monday pushed back against Patrick, defending Arredondo and the police.
鈥淟ocal law enforcement has not made any public comments about the specifics of the investigation into the incident or [misled] anyone,鈥� McLaughlin said in a news release. 鈥淪tatements by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick that he was 鈥榥ot told the truth鈥� are not true.鈥�
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