Written by Jim Vertuno
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Following years of court battles over public access to the material, school authorities in Uvalde, Texas, disclosed the shooter’s text messages, personnel papers, and student records from the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting on Monday.
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Top school district officials’ communications are among the documents, as are emails and texts sent to and from on-scene school police officers. Additionally included in the release is the personnel file of Pete Arredondo, the former chief of schools police, who has been characterized as the leader of the law enforcement reaction on the scene.
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.
The documents are not the public’s first look into one of the bloodiest mass shootings in the country and a sluggish, highly ridiculed police response. Police body cam footage and 911 call recordings were made public by Uvalde city officials last year.
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. Numerous federal and state investigations into the response have exposed a number of issues in law enforcement leadership, technology, training, and communication. They have also raised concerns about whether officers put their personal lives ahead of that of teachers and children.
For their actions that day, two officers from the school district are facing criminal charges. Both former officer Adrian Gonzales and former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo are charged with several charges of child abandonment and endangerment. Both men are set to go on trial later this year after entering not guilty pleas.
These two responding cops are the only ones who have been charged.
