City officials in Uvalde are using legal loopholes to prevent police records related to school shooting from being released amid scrutiny on response: report

Sarah Al-Arshani
Updated ·2 min read
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  • The Uvalde police response to last month's school shooting has prompted criticism.

  • The police changed their narrative on what happened multiple times.

  • The city is now citing legal loopholes to prevent the public release of information, NPR reported.

City officials in Uvalde are using a legal loophole to prevent the release of police records tied to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary school, NPR reported.

A private law firm was hired to make a case for the City of Uvalde. The case cited the "dead suspect loophole," as a reason to deny the release of information, according to NPR.

The loophole was invoked because the gunman was shot by police during the shooting, and the loophole bans disclosure of information where no one was committed of a crime, and the Texas Attorney General's Office has said the exception also applies when a suspected shooter dies.

Cynthia Trevino, a lawyer for the firm Denton Navarro Rocha Bernal & Zech, which is representing the city wrote a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on June 16 asking him to rule on which public records has to release, NPR reported.

There have been close to 150 public records requests, including for 911 calls and body camera footage.

The 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 kids and two adults. An investigation into the police response was opened in the aftermath of the shooting. Authorities in Uvalde have changed their narrative on what happened multiple times, and have been criticized for waiting over an hour to engage the shooter. He barricaded himself in adjourned classrooms.

Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, told NPR the "dead suspect loophole" was created in 1990, but has been misused.

"It is meant to protect the innocent," Shannon told NPR, but in some cases "it is being used and misused in a way that was never intended."

The city and police department have also cited a number of other reasons for not releasing information, including that they're being sued and that release of some information could reveal police tactics for responding to attacks.

 

 

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