Texas judge issues ruling in a legal fight for transparency in Uvalde school shooting
UVALDE — A Texas District Court judge ordered Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and Uvalde County to release records related to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary.
The ruling dated July 8 comes after a group of news organizations including CBS News filed a lawsuit after their open-records requests for information were denied following the shooting.
The county and the district have until July 28 to release those documents, according to the ruling.
Nineteen children and two adults were killed in the 2022 massacre. Law enforcement officers killed the gunman in a classroom after waiting more than an hour to confront him, which was heavily criticized in the wake of the shooting.
Last month, Pete Arredondo, the former police chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, was arrested, more than two years after the shooting. Arredondo was booked into the Uvalde County Jail on 10 counts of child endangerment.
A grand jury indicted both Arredondo and Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde school police officer, according to court documents.
Gonzales was indicted on 29 counts of child endangerment and booked into the Uvalde County Jail. The indictment alleges that "after hearing gunshots" and "being advised of the general location of the shooter and having time to respond," Gonzales "failed to engage, delay or distract the shooter" and also "failed...to follow his active shooter training."
Both men turned themselves in and were released on $10,000 bonds.
A critical report on law enforcement's response to the mass shooting was released by the Justice Department in January. It highlighted a number of "cascading failures" on the part of the police chief and other officials.
In May, family members of Uvalde school shooting victims reached a $2 million settlement with Uvalde. The city of Uvalde will pay a total of $2 million to the families of the children killed in the shooting and two children who survived, according to a statement from the families' attorneys.