FILE – Investigators search for evidences outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde school district on Friday, Oct. 7 pulled its entire embattled campus police force off the job following a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
School leaders also put two members of the district police department on administrative leave, one of whom chose to retire instead, according to a statement released by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
FILE – Family, parents and friends file out of a meeting where Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was dismissed by the Board of Trustees of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde school district on Friday, Oct. 7 pulled its entire embattled campus police force off the job following a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
The extraordinary move by Uvalde school leaders to suspend campus police operations — one month into a new school year in the South Texas community — underscored the sustained pressure that families of some of the 19 children killed in the May 24 attack have kept on the district.
FILE – Law enforcement, and other first responders, gather outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde school district on Friday, Oct. 7 pulled its entire embattled campus police force off the job following a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
Brett Cross, whose 10-year-old son Uziyah Garcia was among the victims, had been protesting outside the Uvalde school administration building for the past two weeks, demanding accountability over officers allowing a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle to remain in a fourth-grade classroom for more than 70 minutes.
“We did it!” Cross tweeted.
FILE – A Uvalde police officer watches as family and friends of those killed and injured in the school shootings at Robb Elementary take part in a protest march and rally, Sunday, July 10, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde school district on Friday, Oct. 7 pulled its entire embattled campus police force off the job following a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.(AP Photo/Eric Gay)
The district said it would ask the Texas Department of Public Safety, which had already assigned dozens of troopers to the district for the school year, for additional help.
“We are confident that staff and student safety will not be compromised during this transition,” the district said in a statement.
FILE — Police walk near Robb Elementary School following a shooting, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. Four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, the Uvalde school district on Friday, Oct. 7 pulled its entire embattled campus police force off the job following a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
The move comes a day after revelations that the district not only hired a former Department of Public Safety trooper who was one of the nearly 400 officers who rushed to the scene of Robb Elementary, but that she was among at least seven troopers later placed under internal investigation for her actions.
Officer Crimson Elizondo was fired Thursday, one day after CNN first reported her hiring. She has not responded to voicemails and messages left by The Associated Press.
