UVALDE, Texas – Former Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who is charged in connection with the Robb Elementary shooting, is asking a judge to move his trial out of Uvalde County, according to court records obtained by KSAT Investigates.
A grand jury indicted Arredondo last year on 10 counts of endangering a child for his response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, where a gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers.
It took law enforcement 77 minutes to confront the gunman.
Arredondo took much of the blame from the public in the aftermath of the shooting after Texas Department of Public Safety officials said he assumed command of the scene and made the decision not to breach the classroom containing the gunman.
Coverage of the shooting and its aftermath have made Arredondo a “scapegoat of the local and national media to an extent unmatched in Uvalde’s history,” court records filed on Oct. 31 state.
Records state Arredondo “cannot receive a fair trial from a jury free of prejudice” in Uvalde County.
Adrian Gonzales, a former UCISD police officer who worked under Arredondo, is also charged in relation to his response to the shooting.
Gonzales, who faces 29 counts of endangering a child, asked earlier this year to have his trial moved out of Uvalde County.
Last month, Gonzales’ attorney confirmed to KSAT that presiding Judge Sid Harle agreed to move the trial to Corpus Christi, Texas, in January 2026.
In a phone call with KSAT Investigates on Monday, Arredondo’s defense attorney Paul Looney said he filed the motion to be consistent.
Looney said he’s fairly confident Arredondo’s trial would also get moved to Nueces County. Court records show the judge has yet to sign the order.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.