Tex. pol sues, seeking truth about Uvalde

Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that his state has “utterly failed to explain” what happened on the day of the Uvalde school shooting.

Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, asserts in the lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety that the agency hasn’t responded to an open records request that he filed on May 31 — a week after 19 children and two teachers were killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School.

“In the wake of the senseless tragedy, the people of Uvalde and Texas have demanded answers from their government,” Gutierrez’s lawsuit in Travis County District Court says. “To date, they have been met with lies, misstatements and shifts of blame.

“The state of Texas failed these families and those families deserve to know the complete, unalterable truth about what happened that day. This is a suit to demand just that.”

The 51-year-old Gutierrez, who is a Democrat, asks the court to demand that the Public Safety Department fulfill his open records request.

The filing came a day after Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin insisted there’s “no coverup,” saying there are “specific legal reasons” that his city hasn’t released certain information.

On Tuesday, Texas Public Safety Director Col. Steve McCraw criticized the police response to the shooting, calling it an “abject failure.”

Earlier this week, reports said armed officers waited 58 minutes before entering a classroom where the 18-year-old gunman had opened fire. McCraw said at Tuesday’s state Senate hearing that the classroom door couldn’t be locked from the inside.

“I have great reasons to believe [the door] was never secured,” McCraw said. “How about trying the door and seeing if it’s locked?”

McCraw also accused Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo of prioritizing his officers’ safety over that of the children.

Uvalde residents, including parents of victims, attended a monthly school board meeting Monday and called for Arredondo to resign.

The Uvalde City Council on Tuesday unanimously rejected Arredondo’s attempt to take a leave of absence from public meetings. Arredondo is a council member.

The massacre at Robb Elementary was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history and one of the deadliest ever in the United States.