Texas lawmaker sues safety department for release of Uvalde shooting records

A Texas state senator filed a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Public Safety, accusing officials of denying an open records request regarding the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead last month.

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents the district that includes Uvalde, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, claiming the Texas Department of Public Safety ignored his previous request for information regarding its investigation into law enforcement’s response to the shooting. Gutierrez said he initially submitted a records inquiry on May 31 requesting “several categories of information” but was met with no response.

"In the wake of this massacre, the State of Texas has completely failed to provide the community of Uvalde with truthful answers. Weeks have come and gone, and yet families who lost their children have not been told by their government the basic information about who was on site as their children bled, what tools were at their disposal to stop the gunman, and exactly why they decided to wait instead of act,” Gutierrez said in a statement. “The community of Uvalde deserves answers now, so that we can begin to heal and make sure a massacre like this never happens again."

Under state law, the department is granted 10 business days to either respond to records requests or ask for an exemption from the state attorney general. The department did neither, Gutierrez said.