HOUSTON (AP) The long-running legal battle to release audio and video recordings and other documents pertaining to the May 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is nearing its conclusion.
As early as next week, the contested data are anticipated to be made public by Uvalde County and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
In 2022, media outlets, such as The Associated Press, filed a lawsuit against the county and district to obtain their data pertaining to the mass shooting that claimed the lives of two instructors and 19 pupils. In July, the Texas Appeals Court affirmed a lower court’s decision requiring the information to be made public.
Records from the mass shooting, including horrifying footage and recordings of police radio traffic and 911 calls, were made public by the City of Uvalde in August 2024. The roughly 15,000-person city is located 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of San Antonio.
The incredibly delayed response from law enforcement, which has been severely criticized, was described in that information. In a classroom full of instructors and children who were dead or injured, over 400 officers waited for over 70 minutes before addressing the shooter.
Police service and 911 call logs, shooting evidence logs, Robb Elementary body-worn and security camera footage, student files for the shooter, district officials’ internal contacts, and the findings of school safety audits are all expected to be made public by the school district.
Additionally, it might create public personnel files and other documents pertaining to Pete Arredondo, the former police chief of Uvalde Schools who was sacked and charged for his involvement in the police reaction.
Sheriff dispatch logs, radio traffic, video footage, ballistics and evidence logs, incident and 911 reports pertaining to Robb Elementary and other locations, and reports of law enforcement interactions with the 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos, and his mother are among the anticipated county records.
The extent to which this material has already been made public is yet unknown.
The victims’ families have long demanded that the authorities take responsibility for the tardy reaction.
Nothing in those documents and files has the potential to cause us any more suffering than what we have already experienced. There will be inquiries after it is released. There will be transparency. There might be some responsibility. Berlinda Arreola, the grandmother of victim Amerie Jo Garza, age 10, informed the Uvalde school board that accountability would be forthcoming prior to the board’s vote on July 21 to authorize the release of the documents.
Media groups filed a separate lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety, demanding that the agency’s records pertaining to the school massacre be made public. The lawsuit is still pending.
According to court papers, DPS has stated that the release of its records could be risky since it would expose information about officers’ work practices, leaving law enforcement vulnerable. It could also make prosecutions more difficult.
The case against DPS’s records is still proceeding before Texas’ 15th Court of Appeals.
There are criminal charges against two of the responding cops. Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, a former school officer, have entered not guilty pleas to many counts of endangering and abandoning children. On October 20, they will go on trial.
