Politics

State Senator sues Texas Department of Public Safety for failure to provide Uvalde school shooting records

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Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez (D-Uvalde) is suing the Texas Department of Public Safety over its refusal to provide records to the response by law enforcement to the Robb Elementary School shooting last month.

Gutierrez filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, accusing the Department of Public Safety of failing to respond to an official open records request for the shooting records, and did not receive an answer from DPS. “In the wake of the senseless tragedy, the people of Uvalde and Texas have demanded answers from their government. To date, they have been met with lies, misstatements, and shifts of blame,” the lawsuit reads.

The police response to the shooting, which took the lives of 19 elementary school children and 2 teachers, has been the subject of nationwide scrutiny and criticism in the weeks following the shooting. As more information is uncovered, the actions of law enforcement at the school on May 24 have raised more questions than answers, and have been the subject of several official investigations.

A public hearing in front of the Texas Senate this week revealed police waited over an hour before engaging the shooter, and had the means to subdue the shooter after only 3 minutes.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin agrees the Department of Public Safety has been reluctant to hand over any records or share any information with city officials. The mayor accused DPS Director Steve McCraw of purposely withholding the information in order to protect his department from the reality of the botched response.

“McCraw has continued to, whether you want to call it, lie, leak … mislead or misstate information in order to distance his own troopers and rangers from the response,” McLaughlin said. The mayor pledged to release any information the city is able to obtain.

ARTICLE: LAURA SPIVAK

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE

PHOTO CREDITS: THE TEXAN

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