After the mass firing in 2022 at Robb Elementary, heads of schools in Valede, Texas, initially planned to publicly defend the police chief Pete Arred Arreda is now confronted with criminal liability over the delay in the confrontation between law enforcement agencies.
Previously, the unsubstantiated details were discovered on more than 25,000 records that the district revealed during the week since August 26 after many years of legal struggle with information expenses, including Propublica and Texas Tribune, which, what a tribuna, what a tribune, what a texas, which is, which is a tribuna, which is the TEXAS. Submitted more than 70 requests for public information For records immediately after shooting.
Documents were to be published in early August when schools and county Originally released requested records After settlement with information organizations. Rob Deal, a prosecutor representing the school district, confessed at the Council meeting on August 25 that his office made an “error on our side” by releasing a share of files. Members of the Council, including Jesse Riza, who lost the 9-year-old niece Jackie Kazares in the shooting, grilled the Deic about the supervision of the firm.
“When we use the word” mistake “, it applies very easily,” said Riza. “The word” careless “comes to mind.”
However, the district law firm may not have reported all the requested information again, according to Laura Protter, one of the lawyers providing the editorial staff in court cases. On Friday, the Protter sent a letter demanding the district to publish the other files that may include detailed information on maintenance issues at the school with doors that failed to record, ARREDODO and additional messages among the officials. Decer, the district’s lawyer, did not respond to the requests for comment.
Summary on the disclosure of the school district mirror Errors made by the city of Valde last yearIf the officials there did not include at least 50 videos and boards In their first release records. They moved to reveal them all months later.
As the district’s law firm started records last week, another shooting made national headlines when two children were killed and 21 more children and adults were injured at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. The terms only emphasize the importance of the release of the records of Valvede as soon as possible, said Kelly Shannon, Executive Director of the Texas Freedom Foundation.
“Many times the governments will think that, stopping or trying to avoid allocation of records, they can avoid responsibility and avoid tough questions,” Shannon said. This only makes it difficult to stop such tragedies and prevents families from healing.
“Getting information faster than later is the way,” she said, “and that’s not what we saw that he surrounded the firing.”
Despite the fact that information organizations have previously received from the sources, many of the records of state bodies contained, recently published documents include undisclosed internal communications that offer a deeper understanding of the internal work of the school district. His leaders rarely commented on the shooting publicly in three years as he left 19 elementary students and two teachers of the dead.
Among the new revelations, the documents show the unraveling of the support of the Arredond area, as details of the response to law enforcement agencies were published within weeks after firing.
School heads have long explained their silence and refusal to release these records to many local, state and federal investigation into law enforcement agencies. This was a criminal probe to the Prosecutor of the Valede district, which eventually led to the fact that last year were charged with the threat of children’s threat. Both kept their innocence on the eve of the trial scheduled for the next year.
Initially, ARREDODO received the bulk of the answer, though the PROPBLICA and Tribune investigation later revealed what found it found State and local agencies staff were incorrectly treated as a shuts as a barricted subjectInstead of an active threat and did not take control of the answer.
Three days after the tragedy Steve McCrav, then the head of the Texas Public Security Department, announced at the press conference This Arredond was responsible for the inability of law enforcement agencies to confront the booth up to 77 minutes after he enrolled in school.
A few hours later, the spokesman of the district Anne Mar Espinoza sent an email to the then department of Hal Harrela Press Release, who defended Arred The statement warned that the district could only provide limited information from the current investigations, but stated that “the corresponding term is shared by these clarifying details.”
The school district, however, never published this version of the press, which allowed McKrau’s story to continue circulating indisputable. Internal communication, which is released so far, do not explain why. In recent days, none of the district heads answered the editorial staff.
Instead, the district published a press release next Wednesday, which did not mention Arredond, but stated that the school would not comment until all state and federal agencies have completed their review.
E -mails also indicate that during the week after the press conference, the district law firm has developed documents to place Arredondo on administrative vacation.
Harrell waited a few more weeks before starting this action.
The documents show that Arredondo wanted to discuss its story. In the NEW York Times reporter’s email section shortly after the Macras press conference, Arred
The police chief said he could not comment at the investigation at this point.
Approximately two weeks when the investigations continued, Arred An exclusive interview that shares your experience shooting The answer and preservation of the fact that he was not the commander of the incident.
He said that Harrell’s superintendent was that the article went two hours before the publication.
The electronic messages of the chief show that the next day he met with the law firm to discuss the development of the ARREDONDO agreement, which banned him to make more public statements if he did not receive written permission from Harrell. The instructions emphasize that the area will be silent about shooting to “ensure the integrity of the expected investigations”, which indicates that public comments can be considered an intervention.
“Any non -compliance with these directives can lead to adverse work, as well as the termination of your work,” the agreement said.
On June 15, the police chief told the head that he needed a vacation to visit the Texas Capitol next Tuesday and prepare with his lawyer the day before.
Arredondo testified behind closed doors for five hours Before the State Committee of the House provided a frantic condemnation The reaction of law enforcement agencies in a separate hearing of the state Senate, which was open to the public. He claimed that the police could stop the shooter within three minutes if it had not been hesitant.
The next day Harrell placed Arredondo on an administrative vacation.
In a press release project, announcing Arredondo’s vacation, then the head of the department Bat St. St. Defeat suggested that the heads of the districts did not receive any information about the answer before the hearings.
“Yesterday, like you, I first saw the information released,” she suggested that Harrelu and the lawyer, then said they should add, “something like” Pete on vacation, blah -bla -bla “” in an e -mail.
The district ultimately published a press release, which said that Harrell initially did not intend to make personnel decisions until after the investigation of the shooting was concluded, but because of the uncertainty, when they were made, he decided to put Arredondo on vacation.
Prosecutor Arredond Paul Luni said he was not surprised when the county returned the support of the police or when he learned from the information organizations that the district had developed a letter requesting leaving Aridond a few weeks before giving it to him.
“Obviously, their original reaction was true, and then they decided to plan the truth and join the DPS on the cover of politics, and Pete was spent,” Luni said. “The truth is that Pete has done a good job on this day.”
Most of the documents revealed in the last party were extended from the Harrell’s mailbox. During the hours and days after the tragedy, the leaders and the survivors in other school shots offered support. But many parents, educators and law enforcement agencies across the country and the police also resigned him.
Harrell often sent himself an email lists of affairs that included reminders such as “burials”, “security we can do” and the people he needed to call. Former supervisor received a back reaction during June 9 Press conference Where he refused to answer questions about law enforcement. The next day, he included the list of retirement and transition plan “in his list. Harrell, who did not respond to interview requests in the editorial office, retired later the same year.
The last batch of emails also raised additional questions. For example, the release included a schedule that showed 13 threats made by school in the county that year, including one to Robb’s element, but did not give details about how the leaders addressed them or when they took place.
Once the school district is completed by the entry, the DPS will become the latest agency sued by the editorial staff that continue to close the shooting materials from disclosure. The editorial lawyer, the lawyer, said the documents of the state organization of law enforcement agencies are particularly important as the agency was investigating shooting and Supports 2-Terabytes With the broadest accounting of the event.
Editorial staff won the initial ruling in 2023 And the judge ordered DPS to publish his records, but the agency appealed against the decision. The Appeal Court is still to issue a ruling after oral arguments in October last year.
The state agency did not respond to requests for this story, but has long claimed that publishing documentation on firing could interfere with a constant investigation and possible persecution.
“You are talking about the situation where people survived the horrible tragedy and loss they could imagine, and they already trust those who have to protect their children,” the Protter said. “Then three years to get the answers about what happened that day and get this information only after you were told again and again to produce it … It’s like a thousand cuts.”
Jessica priest and Alex Nguyen of Texas Tribune contributed to reporting.
