HOUSTON — A yearslong legal fight over the release of audio and video recordings and other records related to the May 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is coming closer to an end. The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and Uvalde County are expected to make the disputed records public as early as this week.
Media organizations, including The Associated Press, sued the district and county in 2022 for the release of their records related to the mass shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. A Texas appeals court in July upheld a lower court’s ruling that the records must be released.
The City of Uvalde released its records from the mass shooting — including devastating video and recordings of police radio traffic and 911 calls — in August 2024. The city of about 15,000 people is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
That information detailed the agonizingly slow law enforcement response, which has been widely condemned. Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers.
The school district is expected to release police service and 911 call records; evidence logs related to the shooting; body-worn and security camera footage from Robb Elementary; student files for the shooter; internal communications among district officials; and results of school safety audits.
It could also make public personnel files and other records related to Pete Arredondo, the former Uvalde schools police chief who was fired and indicted for his role in the police response.
Records from the county are expected to include incident and 911 reports concerning Robb Elementary and other locations; sheriff dispatch logs and radio traffic; video footage; ballistics and evidence logs; and reports of law enforcement interactions with the shooter and his mother.
It’s not yet clear how much of this information has already been publicly released.
Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow police response.
“There’s nothing in those records and those files that can hurt any one of us any more than the pain that we’ve already endured. Once released, there will be questions. Transparency will come. There may be some blame. Accountability will come,” Berlinda Arreola, grandmother of 10-year-old victim Amerie Jo Garza, told the Uvalde school board before the board voted to approve the records’ release on July 21.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is still fighting a separate lawsuit filed by media organizations for the release of that agency’s records related to the school shooting.
DPS has said the release of its records could be “dangerous” because it would make law enforcement vulnerable by exposing information about how officers do their jobs and it could also complicate prosecutions in the case, according to court records.
The lawsuit over DPS’s records remains pending with the 15th Court of Appeals in Texas.
Two of the responding officers face criminal charges. Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. They are set to face trial on Oct. 20.
___
Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70