TYLER, Texas — The question that a media coalition, including KYTX CBS19, is trying to answer is "what were the 91 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers doing for more than an hour while there was a gunman in a classroom at Robb Elementary School?"
The media coalition consisting of local, national and state media organizations filed a lawsuit asking for a judge to order the DPS to release all records regarding their response to the Uvalde school shooting.
KYTX CBS19 is joining 17 media companies, including WFAA in Dallas and the Texas Tribune, in a lawsuit for the DPS to release any information in its role during the May 24 shooting.
The organizations within the coalition have all filed requests for information under the Texas Public Information Act. The coalition states that the DPS has refused to release records amid the requests for further information; the DPS is citied with saying there is an exemption for releasing records in an ongoing investigation.
The lawsuit argues that there is no ongoing criminal investigation and that the "DPS has conceded that [the] release of certain information will not undermine its investigation."
The media coalition is requesting the release of emails; body camera footage; call logs; interview notes; and more to help provide further context and information to the public regarding the events of May 24.
"In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, and continuing throughout the ensuing two months, DPS has declined to provide any meaningful information in response to the Requests regarding the events of that day — despite the awful reality that some 376 members of law enforcement responded to the tragedy, and hundreds of those were in the school or on school property not going into the unlocked classroom where the gunman continued killing helpless youth," the plaintiffs asserted in the lawsuit. "While DPS has publicly blamed the response of local law enforcement, DPS has said little about the action (or inaction) of the 91 DPS officers who also responded to the scene."