AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — School officials in Uvalde, Texas, on Monday released text messages, personnel files and student records of the shooter from the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, ending a yearslong legal battle over public access to the material.
The records include emails between top school district officials and also text messages and emails to and from school police officers on the scene. The release also contains the personnel file of former schools police chief Pete Arredondo, who has been described as the on-scene commander of the law enforcement response.
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 records are not the public’s first glimpse inside one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings and a slow law enforcement response that has been widely condemned. Last year, city officials in Uvalde released police body cam videos and recordings of 911 calls.
Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. Multiple federal and state investigations into the response have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Two school district officers face criminal charges for their actions that day. Former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo and former officer Adrian Gonzales both face multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment. Both men have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial later this year.
They are the only two responding officers to have been charged.
