Uvalde school police chief Pete Arredondo, who is also a member of the city council, missed a second council meeting on Thursday to answer questions from critics over his response to a May 24 shooting at an elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers.
If Arredondo misses the third consecutive meeting, the council may announce that his seat is vacant.
This month, Texas Department of Community Safety (DPS) Director Steven McCraw said Arredondo, a local superintendent at the time of the shooting, made “bad decisions” and police at the scene lacked adequate, time-consuming training that could have saved lives.
Last week, the school district put Arredondo on administrative leave. He said he had never seen himself as a commander of events.
At a meeting on Thursday, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said he had not been able to reach the offices of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton or the Uvalde regional attorney, with no one in the office answering his calls. McLaughlin said the Texas Department of Community Safety withheld information about the response to the shooting at various law enforcement agencies.
Later on Thursday, American Oversight said it had sued the offices of Paxton and Texas Governor Greg Abbott for making them release more information about the school shooting and their contact with gun organizations after the massacre.
Lawyers and the public want the authorities to provide more details about their response to the incident. Many parents and relatives of the children and staff have expressed outrage at the long delay in police action after a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and started firing.
At a meeting on Thursday, McLaughlin and members of the city council re-entered a private session to speak to a lawyer about a separate investigation into the shooting.
Then they asked questions. The parents of the victims have expressed frustration with the way the investigation is progressing.