(NewsNation) — A district court judge in Texas ruled the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) must release records connected to the Uvalde elementary school shooting last year that left 21 people dead. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez said “nobody seems to want to tell the truth” about the police response to the shooting.
“Seventy-seven minutes they waited outside while children died, while people still had a pulse. Four people had a pulse. When they finally went in, all those were people passed on,” Gutierrez told NewsNation Prime’s Natasha Zouves. “We are in a sad state of affairs in Texas. It’s unfortunate, but nobody seems to want to tell the truth as far as the Department of Public Safety is concerned.”
Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle of the 261st Civil District Court, ordered the Texas DPS on Thursday to start releasing public records associated with the police response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School. The ruling comes after more than a dozen news organizations sued DPS alleging the agency of unlawfully withholding the records.
Gutierrez is pleased the court took a position on the release and hopes it provides answers.
“Some of the stuff that the public will see is very gruesome and gory. Certainly, we’ve got to protect our families when we’re doing that,” Gutierrez said. “I’m hoping that we get to some of the meat as to why the DPS troopers didn’t act in the manner that they were supposed to or why they didn’t act according to what the rulebook says you do. So, I’m hoping that we get to some of those answers.”
The police response consisted of nearly 400 officers. It took more than an hour for authorities to enter the elementary school and take down the gunman. A Texas House investigative committee report found “systemic failures and egregiously poor decision-making” in the response.
“It’s clear that those failures are evident. It’s clear they (Texas DPS) don’t want to acknowledge them,” Gutierrez said, later adding: “They do not want to accept their responsibility.”
The Texas Tribune reports Judge Lyttle ordered Texas DPS to hand over a proposed log of redactions of the public records by the end of August. DPS could choose to appeal the judgment.
