The release is part of a lawsuit filed by this TEGNA Texas, which includes this station, and several other media outlets.
KNIPPA, Texas — It’s been more than three years since 19 students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. This week, we could learn more about the response.
TEGNA Texas, which includes WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth, KHOU in Houston, KVUE in Austin, KENS in San Antonio, KCEN in Waco-Temple-Killeen, KYTX in Tyler-Longview, KBMT in Beaumont-Port Arthur, KIII in Corpus Christi, KWES in Midland-Odessa, KIDY in San Angelo, and KXVA in Abilene, was part of a lawsuit seeking the release of documents that could help the victims’ families get a better understanding of what happened that day.
Last month, a Texas appeals court judge upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Uvalde Independent School District and Uvalde County must release previously withheld documents. KHOU 11 has learned that we should receive both sets of records this week.
At this point, we don’t know what the records will show, but we plan to go through them as soon as we receive them. We will post our findings.
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.
That information in those records 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.
What records will be released?
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 victims have also pushed for information
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.
What legal battle remains over the release of records?
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 officers set to stand trial for response
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.
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