Uvalde school district to decide whether to fire Police Chief Pete Arredondo in Saturday meeting

Families and some authorities have called for Arredondo to be fired.

The Uvalde, Texas, school board will meet in a special session Saturday to consider the recommendation to fire Police Chief Pete Arredondo for cause following widespread criticism of how he handled the response to the May school shooting.

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has recommended Arredondo be fired.

Arredondo is currently on leave while an investigation into the conduct of law enforcement at the shooting on May 24 takes place. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

The discussion will occur in a closed session, but, legally, a determination to fire him would have to be publicly announced.

Despite the Uvalde school district's active shooter plan calling for its police chief to assume command in the event of a shooting, Arredondo allegedly failed to take on the role of incident commander or transfer the responsibility to another officer on scene during the May 24 attack, according to a report issued this week by a joint committee of the Texas Legislature.

"The Uvalde CISD's written active shooter plan directed its police chief to assume command and control the response to an active shooter," according to the report.

Last month, Arredondo told The Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the commanding officer on the scene.