Uvalde school officials have released text messages, personnel files, and student records of the gunman from the 2022 Robb Elementary School massacre, ending a years-long legal fight over public access.
The documents include communications between top district officials and two school police officers who were at the scene, along with the personnel file of former school police chief Pete Arredondo, the on-scene commander during the attack.
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One exchange shows Arredondo telling an officer to “hang out at the park” with the 12th graders less than three hours before the shooting began.
Other texts show that on the day of the shooting, Arredondo was alerted to gunfire outside the school at 11:40 a.m., yet nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes to confront the gunman. Both Arredondo and former officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment and are scheduled for trial later this year.
The release comes after a Texas appeals court in July upheld an order for the district to make the records public, following a lawsuit by media outlets. Federal and state investigations have since detailed widespread failures in training, communication, leadership, and decision-making.