A long exposure photograph shows people around a memorial for victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting at the town square in Uvalde on May 26, 2022. (Elias Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — The Texas Department of Public Safety has been ordered to release records on the Uvalde school shooting by a state district judge. The records could provide further insight into law enforcement’s response to the massacre.
The 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting was Texas’ deadliest, leaving 21 people dead — 19 of them children.
One hour and 20 minutes elapsed between the first call to 911 and the moment police confronted the shooter, leading to a national uproar over law enforcement’s response to the massacre.
Investigations have shown law enforcement missed opportunities to slow the gunman or stop him before he entered the school, even as 376 officers responded to the shooting.
The release ordered Thursday is a result of a lawsuit by a group of media outlets, including ABC News and The Texas Tribune. The lawsuit alleged that the department violated state law by refusing to release records following the shooting.
Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle of the 261st Civil District Court granted a motion for summary judgment on behalf of the media organizations.
Records — filed under the Texas Public Information Act — will not be immediately available, and DPS will be able to redact details before the information becomes public. The department is ordered to produce a detailed log of proposed redactions by Aug. 31, and a hearing on the redacted items will likely occur in September.
The Tribune said DPS was asked to provide dashcam videos from police vehicles, emails, recordings and transcripts of 911 calls, forensic records and a complete list of responders, among other documents.
DPS had refused to release the records for over a year, instead releasing some information via analysis reports and news conferences.
Texas law requires records to be public unless a government body cites a specific exemption. It is not uncommon for records requests to be denied on the grounds that an investigation into a shooting is ongoing.
A 77-page report by a Texas House committee found last summer that no single party was responsible for the botched law enforcement response to the shooting. Rather, the report said “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” allowed the tragedy to occur.
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