Plumbing 
Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez resigned March 12 during a meeting with department staff. The resignation will take effect April 6, he said.
Neither the city administration nor Rodriguez have specified why he’s resigning. Homer Delgado, assistant chief of the department, will be named interim chief as city leadership search for a full-time replacement and oversee the department’s 49 employees, Mayor Cody Smith wrote in a statement issued at 1:45 P.M.
“It should also be noted that I was not forced, asked or pressured by anyone in the city or the community to make the decision that I made,” Rodriguez told the Leader-News. “This decision was best for me and my family.”
Rodriguez, who in his resignation letter said he was moving onto a new chapter in his career, has led Uvalde’s police department since his 2018 promotion from lieutenant to chief. He was in Phoenix on scheduled vacation on May 24, 2022.
He has served in various roles since joining UPD in 1997, including patrol officer, corporal, detective sergeant and lieutenant. He left the department in 2006 to join U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but he returned in 2007.
“I want to express my deepest appreciation to all of my colleagues and team members for their unwavering support, professionalism, and dedication to our mission of serving and protecting the community,” Rodriguez wrote in his resignation letter to the city. “It has been a privilege to work alongside such talented and committed individuals, and I will miss our collaborations and camaraderie dearly.”
The resignation comes a few days after community members and city leaders heard a city report that absolved UPD of any blame in the botched law response during the Robb Elementary shooting.
The report, which was promised as an accountability review, was instead prepared for the city to use against litigation.
Austin-based investigator Jesse Prado’s 182-page review, which largely blames school police and parents attempting to enter Robb the day of the shooting, has garnered widespread rage since its March 7 delivery. Several family members of victims and survivors criticized Prado and the city that day.
Family members of victims and survivors called for city to take action by firing three specific officers that responded on May 24, 2022, during a March 12 city council meeting. Read this week’s council coverage for more on that.
Delgado said earlier in the day that he didn’t know Rodriguez’s resignation was coming but that he had heard talk that it was possible. Delgado joined the Uvalde Police Department in the year after the May 24, 2022, shooting.
“This is all brand new,” Delgado said. He later added that he’ll be here to support the community however he can.
Rodriguez is a Uvalde native and graduated from Uvalde High School. He graduated from Sul Ross State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He and his wife reside in town with their two daughters.
Sofi Zeman (szeman@ulnnow.com, 830-278-3335) is a Report for America corps member who writes about education and crime for the Leader-News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep Sofi writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting tinyurl.com/995h5cka