UVALDE, Texas — An investigator looking into the Uvalde Police Department's response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in 2022 said he would have recommended absolving Mariano Pargas – the current Uvalde County commissioner who was the city's acting police chief on May 24, 2022 – of any wrongdoing related to the attack, were he still with the department.
The conclusion was made to Uvalde City Council on Thursday afternoon, when Mayor Cody Smith asked detective Jesse Prado whether Pargas – whom members of the community have called on to resign from his commissioners court seat – violated any policy while responding to the school shooting.
"Lt. Pargas resigned or retired the day after I conducted my interview with him, or within a couple days of that," Prado responded. "But had Lt. Pargas remained with the Uvalde Police Department, it would be my team's recommendation to exonerate Lt. Pargas."
The report also clears 25 other city law enforcement personnel and first responders of wrongdoing at Robb, despite the same report presenting failures in police action that day.
Asked how he came to that conclusion, Prado said Pargas was aware about the chain of command that should have been in place at Robb, as outlined in a memorandum of understanding between the city and Uvalde CISD.
While Prado said "it didn't matter there was an MOU" when officers first arrived on the scene of the active shooter incident, he said that chain of command should have been enacted "when that initial momentum was gone."
At that point, in accordance with the MOU, Prado said, then-Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo should have been incident commander given the shooting was unfolding on school grounds.
Arredondo did take up that mantle, but multiple reports into the Robb response have consistently pointed to a lack of clear leadership and communication as issues that exacerbated the shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed.
Prado, echoing those earlier reports, instead placed blame on Arredondo for not establishing communication and on other law enforcement for requesting a key to enter the room the gunman was in instead of breaching it. He also cited training issues and lack of appropriate equipment, like shields, that played a part in the tragedy.
Asked whether Pargas tried to set up a command post himself at Robb, Prado said he did, but was occupied with other issues, including "crowd control," referring to some community members who "were wanting to break through police barriers."
Pargas stepped down from the Uvalde Police Department in November 2022. He had previously been placed on administrative leave in July, two months after the incident. Arredondo was fired by Uvalde CISD in August 2022.
The report by Prado also exonerates Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez, who was out of town on May 24, 2022, when the shooting took place.
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