AUG 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 8.

AROUND THE COUNTRY
“WE STOPPED LOOKING FOR HEROES”
Former school police chief in Uvalde ‘disappointed’ by law enforcement failures.
By Alfredo Corchado
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
UVALDE, TX — He’s sat with
grieving family members at funerals
and accompanied them to
ongoing wakes to honor victims
of one of the most gruesome
school mass shootings in the
country’s history.
Last week, Leo Flores — known
as Chato — witnessed angry parents
call on their school board
members to resign, deriding
them as cowards and demanding
accountability in the wake of the
massacre at Robb Elementary
School that left 21 dead.
Flores fidgeted uncomfortably
— his anxiety rising.
“I know one thing: Had I still
been at the school, I wouldn’t be
alive today,” he said. “For sure.”
“As a mother, I would have
expected more dead officers and
more children alive,” added his
wife, Melissa, 37. “If he had been
there ... I wouldn’t have a husband
today. I’d be a widow.”
Flores, 37, is the former Uvalde
Consolidated Independent
School District police chief,
replaced in 2020 by Pete Arredondo,
who is facing intense
criticism for not immediately
storming the classroom and
instead trying to negotiate with
an active shooter. A school board
meeting set for Saturday July 20,
to decide whether Arredondo
should be fired was delayed after
his lawyer raised concerns.
Among the 19 students killed
was Flores’ niece, Eliahana
Torres — Eli to her best friend
and cousin, Unica Alicia Flores,
the daughter of Flores and his
wife. The couple have been at
just about every post-shooting
meeting, accompanying Melissa’s
sister after the shooting, forming
a tight family support system
around her.
“My niece was there so yes, I
wish I had been there,” Flores
said, and pausing through every
word, he added “Every … Single
… Day.”
Nearly two months after the
state’s deadliest school shooting,
Uvalde remains a town filled
with regret. Grief transformed
into fury, following a leaked
77-minute video showing footage
of cops mostly standing
along the hallway inside the
school, waiting for someone
to take command of a chaotic
situation, waiting for instructions
to attack an 18-year-old gunman
who killed 19 students and two
teachers.
The week culminated with the
special House subcommittee 77-
page report, the most exhaustive
account yet of the tragedy that
detailed a “systemic failure of
egregious poor decision making”
by nearly everyone in power, every
one of the 376 law enforcement
officers who descended on
the school.
Flores read the report extra
carefully, complete with the expected
“Could have. Would have.
Should have.” He created the
school district’s original police
department, trained staff for active
shooter situations, and tried
keeping teachers on their toes.
After reading the report, he said
he was at a loss for words.
“Disappointed.”
“You take an oath to protect
and serve,” he said, adding “In
an active shooter situation, you
eliminate the threat at all costs.
If it’s you, the one that’s killed,
or the guy behind you, or the
one behind him, the threat is
eliminated in a timely matter.
I’ve been through a door where
I didn’t know what was on the
other side numerous times. ... It’s
just what you signed up to do.
42 The BLUES The BLUES 43