The massacre at Robb Elementary School in May, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, continues to cause tensions in the city of Uvalde. On Thursday, the city filed a lawsuit against the local prosecutor’s office to gain access to records and other investigative materials.
According to the lawsuit brought in Uvalde County against District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee, an independent investigator’s ability to look for policy violations by local responding officers and assess whether internal disciplinary actions are required is being hampered by the lack of access to the scene of the massacre on May 24.
Busbee is launching a criminal inquiry into the shooting, and as part of that probe, she will review a report from the Texas Department of Public Safety that she is awaiting. It would arrive by the end of the year, according to the state’s police head.
“The Uvalde community has waited entirely too long for answers and transparency with regard to the Robb Elementary shooting incident,” said Uvalde city officials in a statement.
When contacted by phone on Thursday, a representative from the Uvalde District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The lawsuit claims that only material from city witnesses, “much of which was provided to the City subject to a non-disclosure agreement and criminal investigation privilege,” has been made available to an independent investigation agency for the city to evaluate.
When pressed for further records, Busbee referenced the criminal investigation, which the lawsuit claims she promised would be concluded by November.
The information, which the lawsuit claims has already been given to other organizations conducting related reviews, would be subject to a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement if given to the independent investigator, Jesse Prado, and would not be accessible to anyone from the city, according to a statement from city officials.
A parliamentary investigation found that nearly 400 law enforcement officers arrived at the school on the day of the shooting, but all of them had to wait more than 70 minutes before they could enter a fourth-grade classroom to confront the shooter.
Due to their actions at the scene, two cops have been dismissed, while other officers have resigned or been put on leave. When confronted for the first time by the families of the Uvalde victims regarding false and inconsistent accounts from law enforcement as well as a lack of transparency in the information that was made available, Col. Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, admitted mistakes made by officers in October. In his defence, McCraw claimed that his organization “did not fail” Uvalde.
Don McLaughlin, the mayor of Uvalde, has previously criticized state police for their response to the shooting and voiced dissatisfaction with the lack of information about one of the worst school shootings in state history.
