HOUSTONA years-long legal battle over the publication of the massacre’s records came to an end Monday when the county leaders in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 kids and two instructors were killed, opted to make the records public.
A coalition of media outlets, including The Associated Press, filed a lawsuit in 2022 to make the records public, and Uvalde County commissioners voted 2-1 to release them and to cease appealing the decision.
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Commissioners’ decision was made one week after the school board of the Uvalde district decided to make its data pertaining to the murderous rampage—one of the bloodiest school shootings in American history—public.
In order to obtain the records, the consortium of media outlets had filed lawsuits against the school system and the county.
Following the upholding of a judge’s decision that mandated the material be made public, the school system and county commissioners voted to make the documents available.
When the records will be made public has not been announced by the school system or the county.
The appellate court’s decision to maintain the judge’s decision to turn over the video coverage, in my opinion, simply confirmed what we are concealing. Following Monday’s meeting, Uvalde County Commissioner Ronald Garza told AP. I’m thrilled that the information will be made public.
Mariano Pargas Jr., a county commissioner who served as the acting police chief on the day of the school shooting, did not cast a ballot.
The victims’ relatives had also pressed for the records to be made public.
On Monday, Jesse Rizo, the uncle of Jackie Cazares, the 9-year-old victim, requested that commissioners make the information public.
Rizo serves on the school board as well. He expressed regret for the wait for the records’ release during the board’s July 21 meeting.
Will it provide all the answers? No. Will you find closure from it? Nothing, in my opinion, will ever provide you with that kind of closure. Will you be able to recover or will it hopefully cause you to heal? Last week, Rizo stated, “I hope it does.”
Reports of the gunman and his mother’s encounters with law enforcement, video footage, ballistics and evidence logs, and incident and 911 reports pertaining to Robb Elementary and other sites are among the county records that are anticipated to be made public.
Body-worn and security camera footage from Robb Elementary, student files belonging to the shooter, and documents regarding Pete Arredondo, the former Uvalde schools police chief who was upset about his part in the tardy response to the shooting, are among the school district papers that are anticipated to be made public.
Arredondo and the former have entered not guilty pleas to several accusations of endangering and abandoning children. On October 20, they will go on trial.
Separate investigations by the Department of Justice and state lawmakers criticized law enforcement for failing to adequately respond to the slaughter, and some of the involved officers, including Arredondo, were fired.
In August 2024, they made their records available. A different lawsuit brought by media groups demanding the disclosure of their records pertaining to the school shooting is still pending.
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