The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) must soon begin releasing public records related to law enforcement’s response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a district court judge in Austin ruled on June 29.
Judge Daniella Deseta Lyttle agreed with a request made by a string of media outlets, including CNN, CBS, NBC, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Texas Tribune, and others to release documents related to the deadly massacre after the publications last year sued the state department for failing to do so.
The publications had initially requested the records under the Texas Public Information Act but Uvalde officials and state police had declined to publish them, citing ongoing investigations into the matter, prompting the news outlets to file the lawsuit arguing that this was not the case given that the shooter’s guilt was not in question.
In their lawsuit, the news outlets had argued that the public records needed to be released because both false and misleading statements made by authorities regarding how the police initially responded to the incident have sowed distrust among both the public and the victims of the families.
The release of the records would help bolster transparency and accountability, they said.
Police Response Condemned
Law enforcement officials have been widely criticized for their response to the shooting, as has the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District for its handling of the massacre. It took Uvalde Police Department officers 77 minutes to confront and take down Ramos.The records will not be immediately made available following Lyttle’s order. Instead, the judge gave DPS until Aug. 31 to produce a “detailed log” of proposed redactions, and a hearing on those is set for September.
DPS could also choose to appeal the ruling before then and Lyttle ordered both parties to submit proposals for final judgment by July 14.
“Judge Lyttle’s ruling brings the Uvalde community and all Texas citizens one step closer to gaining a complete understanding of what happened that day and moving toward closure,” Prather added.
A string of other lawsuits have been filed against the Uvalde school district and law enforcement officers in the wake of last year’s shooting, including a $27 billion class-action lawsuit filed by survivors against multiple law enforcement officials in the state.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment.