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Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo was placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, the school's superintendent announced on Wednesday (June 22).
The news comes nearly a month after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School where a gunman opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers.
In a statement, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell said the district would wait until the investigation was finished before "making personal decisions," according to CNN.
"Today, I am still without details of the investigations being conducted by various agencies. Because of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective on this date," Harrell added.
Since the shooting on May 24, Arredondo has been at the center of criticism surrounding law enforcement's response. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col. Steven McCraw called it an "abject failure."
Arredondo defended police's response to the shooting in an interview with the Texas Tribune. "We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat," he said.
Additionally, the police chief said he didn't consider himself the incident commander at the scene and refuted claims that he ordered officers to stand down. He also said he left both of his radios outside before he entered the building, so he was not aware of the 911 calls being made by students inside.