AUSTIN, Texas, USA (AP) – The city of Uvalde filed a lawsuit Thursday against the local attorney’s office to gain access to files and other investigative materials related to last May’s massacre at Robb Elementary School, where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The move highlights lingering tensions over the slow police response and flow of information about the shooting.
The lawsuit filed in Uvalde County against District Attorney Mitchell Busbee argues that lack of access to information about the May 24 massacre is undermining an independent investigator’s ability to review policy violations by authorities and determine whether it is necessary internal disciplinary action.
Busbee is conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting, which will include reviewing a report he is awaiting from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The state police chief said the document will be ready by the end of the year.
“The Uvalde community as a whole has waited too long for answers and transparency regarding the Robb Elementary shooting,” Uvalde city officials said in a statement.
An employee of the Uvalde district attorney’s office declined to comment Thursday.
The only information that has been made available to an independent investigative agency for the city’s review comes from witnesses, “many of whom were provided to the city under a confidentiality agreement and criminal investigative privileges,” said the agency. Busbee cited the criminal investigation — which he told city authorities would conclude in November — when asked for additional documents, the lawsuit says.
Independent investigator Jesse Prado would be bound by a confidentiality agreement if he receives information, which has already been released to other agencies conducting similar reviews, according to the lawsuit, and would not be made available to any city officials, otherwise according to a statement released. by the city authorities.
Nearly 400 police officers showed up at the school the day of the massacre, according to a state congressional investigative report, but all waited more than 70 minutes before entering the fourth-grade classroom to confront the attacker.
Two officers have already been fired for their actions at the scene and others have resigned or been placed on furlough.
In October, Colonel Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, acknowledged that authorities had made mistakes when he was first confronted by relatives of Uvalde victims about the authorities’ false and contradictory accounts and the lack of transparency in the information available. . McCraw defended the agency for him, saying they “didn’t disappoint” Uvalde.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has previously criticized state authorities’ response to the shooting and expressed frustration at a lack of available information about one of the worst school massacres in state history.
