Jesse Rizo, uncle of Robb Elementary victim Jackie Cazares, serves on the Uvalde CISD Board of Trustees. He says it’s vital to rebuild community trust.
SAN ANTONIO — The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is exploring the possibility of hiring a new law firm following the failure of the current agency to release the entirety of court-ordered documents on the Robb Elementary shooting back a couple weeks ago.
A representative with the Walsh Gallegos law firm based out of San Antonio explained to the Uvalde CISD school board on Monday that the agency mistakenly only shared a portion of documents with the Texas Attorney General’s Office pending release.
On Tuesday evening, KENS 5 and other media tied to the 2022-originated legal battle, received a new batch of documents, including more than 3,400 emails, which further described how school officials responded to the events of the tragedy on May 24, 2022. More records are expected to be made public as soon as Wednesday.
One document shows how the school district informed the community about the shooting.
At 11:41 a.m., as the gunman was already inside the school, the district sent a message to parents stating: “The students and staff are safe in the building. The building is secure in a Lockdown Status.”
But during that time, it became known the mass shooting was already underway.
Other emails include drafts of a press release that stated: “The assailant was contained by these agencies allowing the evacuation of all of precious students, more than 600 students and staff members.”
The teenaged gunman killed 19 students and two teachers before being neutralized by law enforcement after 77 minutes. Waves of scrutiny, including multiple independent, state and federal reports followed the discovery of the events surrounding law enforcement’s delayed response to stopping the bloodshed.
The records also revealed that the Texas Rangers requested maintenance logs for classroom and exterior doors, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection sought building blueprints for Robb Elementary.
Messages released in the batch also show support pouring in from across Texas, including from a Santa Fe High School teacher. In 2018, a gunman killed eight students and two teachers at that Houston-area school.
Jesse Rizo during Monday’s board meeting, called out the Walsh Gallegos representative, saying it was more than just a mistake to not release all the documents, it was a case of negligence. Rizo serves on the board and is the uncle of Robb Elementary victim Jackie Cazares. He said the school board will now commit future meetings to looking at other law firms to hire. Rizo also noted there’s also the ongoing challenge of regaining the community’s trust.
“I personally heard from a lot of family members, the disappointment, the anger. I was called a hypocrite, I was called a liar and on and on. In my heart, I know exactly what my intentions were and I don’t blame them for faulting them. Their trust has been shattered on so many levels,” Rizo said.
More than 20,000 additional records tied to the case are expected to be released by the middle of next week.