A Texas judge ordered the Uvalde school district and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office to release records related to the mishandled 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School within 20 days. Laura Prather, the attorney representing media outlets, said that the school district and sheriff's office must release "all responsive documents" to news agencies — "a pivotal step towards ensuring transparency and accountability.” A consortium of media outlets filed a lawsuit in 2022 after officials in Uvalde repeatedly refused to release records related to the shooting. The news agencies are seeking records including police body camera footage, emails, 911 calls, and additional communications tied to the mass casualty and its investigation, USA Today reports. "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," Prather said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has faced intense scrutiny after video footage revealed that the agency's officers and all other law enforcement agencies that responded to the massacre, waited more than an hour before confronting and killing the shooter. This year, the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing report detailing law enforcement's "significant failure" in the shooting. The report described an unorganized scene in which there was no command and control by officers. It also blamed the school's police chief for attempting to negotiate with the gunman, who had already shot his way into the classroom, while having his officers search for keys to unlock the rooms. In May, days before the second anniversary of the massacre, the victims' families filed a lawsuit against the Department of Public Safety and 92 troopers who responded to the mass shooting, calling the response a dereliction of duty for not employing proper active shooter response training techniques.