Uvalde school district police chief missed his first city council meeting after being slammed for officers' slow response in shooting

• Pete Arrendondo has been slammed for law enforcement's slow response to the Robb Elementary School shooting.
• He had been out of the public eye since, and failed to show up to a Tuesday city council meeting, the AP reported.

The Uvalde school district police chief, who has received widespread criticism for waiting to send officers into Robb Elementary School during the shooting, failed to show up to a city council meeting on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was the incident commander on May 24, when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at the elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers.

Arredondo made the decision to wait more than an hour for backup instead of ordering officers at the scene to immediately confront the shooter, authorities said. The gunman was later killed by US Border Patrol.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw later said this was the "wrong decision, period," CNN reported.

It is unclear why Arredondo was not at the council meeting on Tuesday. Mayor Don McLaughlin told AP he could not offer an explanation. Arredondo did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The meeting was supposed to be Arredondo's first city council meeting after he was elected to one of five council seats on May 7, NBC reported.

He was sworn into office in a private ceremony a week after the shooting despite facing immense criticism from Uvalde residents, as per NBC.

But Arredondo has been out of the public eye since the shooting, and has stopped cooperating with state investigators, McCraw said, The Texas Tribune reported.

Alfred Garza III, whose 10-year-old daughter was among the students killed, told reporters that he decided to attend the city council meeting to get more answers about what happened that day.

"I have so many questions and not everyone can be answered. They're still collecting data, they're still collecting information on what happened," Garza said.

He said he had "mixed feelings" about Arredondo's absence, the AP reported.

"He obviously didn't show up for a reason," Garza said.