FILE - Crosses are surrounded by flowers and other mementos at a memorial, June 9, 2022, for the victims of a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - Law enforcement, and other first responders, gather outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
FILE - Crosses are surrounded by flowers and other mementos at a memorial, June 9, 2022, for the victims of a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
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FILE - Law enforcement, and other first responders, gather outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — School officials in Uvalde, Texas, on Monday released text messages, personnel files and student records of the shooter from the 2022 attack at Robb Elementary School, following a yearslong legal battle over public access to the material.
The records include emails between top school district officials and also text messages and emails to and from at least two school police officers who were on the scene. The release also contains the personnel file of former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo, who has been described as the on-scene commander of the law enforcement response.
The release included a handful of text exchanges between Arredondo and others at the district that were sent before the shooting. At 9:04 a.m., the chief told officer Adrian Gonzales to “go hang out at the park with the seniors until 11:30.†At 11:40 a.m. a text to Arredondo from a district secretary noted someone reported hearing shots outside Robb Elementary.
“They went ahead and locked themselves down,†the text to Arredondo read. At 1:07 p.m. a text to Arredondo asked if any students were injured or taken to the hospital and asked if the district can lift the “secure status†on the school. The shooter had been killed by law enforcement about 15 minutes earlier.
Media organizations, including The Associated Press, sued the district and county in 2022 for the release of their records related to the mass shooting that killed .
A in July upheld a lower court’s ruling that the records must be released.
The records are not the public’s first glimpse inside one of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings and a slow law enforcement response that has been . Last year, city officials in police body cam videos and recordings of 911 calls.
Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. Multiple federal and state investigations into the response have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Two school district officers face criminal charges for their actions that day. The former schools police chief and former officer both face multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment. Both men have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial later this year.
They are the only two responding officers to have been charged.
