Texas judge orders sheriff, school district to release Uvalde school shooting records

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

The school district and sheriff’s office in Uvalde must release their records and documents related to the Robb Elementary School shooting — including police body camera footage, 911 calls and communications, a Texas district court judge ruled last week.

A group of news organizations including The Texas Tribune sued the city of Uvalde, the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District over access to the records after their open-records requests were repeatedly denied following the May 24, 2022 shooting. Lawyers representing the outlets on Monday announced the ruling from the 38th Judicial District Court of Uvalde County, touting it as a “victory for government transparency.”

Nineteen children and two adults were killed by a teenage gunman in the shooting. The response to the shooting has been defined by a series of police failures of leadership and communication that resulted in surviving children being trapped with the gunman in two classrooms for more than an hour before law enforcement confronted him and killed him.

"This ruling is a pivotal step towards ensuring transparency and accountability,” said Laura Prather, a media law attorney with Haynes Boone who represents the news organizations. “The public deserves to know the full details of the response to this tragic event, and the information could be critical in preventing future tragedies.”

The ruling by Judge Sid Harle was dated July 8 and it gives the sheriff’s office and the school district 20 days, or until July 28, to release “all responsive documents.”

A similar ruling from a Travis County state district judge last year ordered the Department of Public Safety to release law enforcement records, however DPS has appealed that order and has not yet released the data related to its investigation. Ninety-one of the agency’s troopers responded to the shooting, which drew a response from nearly 400 law enforcement officials.

Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell had opposed the release of records to the news organizations saying their release could harm her criminal investigation into the shooting response. Two weeks ago, Mitchell announced a grand jury had indicted the former school police chief and an officer on felony charges of child endangerment.

Mitchell and a spokesperson for Uvalde schools did not respond Monday afternoon to requests for comment on the ruling. Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said, "we have no comments on the order."

---

Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!