EXCLUSIVE: Police who responded to Uvalde shooting ordered to testify before a grand jury

Multiple law enforcement officers who responded to the Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers have been ordered to appear before a grand jury investigating the botched police response, the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV have learned.

The subpoenas for in-person testimony, set to begin at the Uvalde County Courthouse next week, mark an acceleration in a 21-month investigation that could result in criminal charges against officers for failing to urgently stop the gunman in May 2022.

Officers from multiple agencies, including the Texas Department of Public Safety, are expected to be called in front of the 12-member panel during what could be a monthslong process. The subpoenas indicate that grand jurors will potentially consider both previously recorded statements and be given the opportunity to question the officers themselves.

The grand jurors also are likely to consider a trove of forensic evidence gathered at the scene, audio radio traffic and videos that help provide a minute-by-minute account of what happened that day.

Three sources familiar with the investigation, but not authorized to speak, confirmed the subpoenas but declined to provide an exact number or to identify who received them. All told, 376 officers from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies responded to the shooting.

It is unclear if the officers who received court orders to appear are possible witnesses or the subjects of the criminal investigation.

Texas law requires that a “subpoena or summons relating to a grand jury relating to a proceeding or investigation must be kept secret to the extent and for as long as necessary to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of a matter before the grand jury.”

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The grand jury investigation comes as the DPS continues to fight the release of records from the failed response, despite state District Judge Daniella Deseta Lyttle ruling that the DPS must unseal the records. In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton came to the aid of the DPS and filed an appeal to prevent the release of the records. The American-Statesman is part of a consortium of news organization that sued the DPS for the release of all records.

Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell has for months said that she planned to take the shooting response to a grand jury amid calls for accountability from parents of victims, calls that started almost immediately after the massacre. It is unclear what charges officers could face, although it is possible that the grand jury could consider child endangerment. Nine of the 12 grand jurors must vote to obtain an indictment.

Mitchell has cited the ongoing investigation for withholding a mountain of evidence that many in the community believe would provide greater transparency about what happened that day. Some of the evidence has come to light, including a hallway video from inside Robb Elementary School that the Statesman and KVUE obtained in July 2022.

The hallway video undid a false narrative of police heroics, initially accepted as fact by top government leaders including the Texas governor, the homeland security secretary and Border Patrol chiefs in Texas. The video and subsequent reports corroborated what the families of the victims had long known: Police failed to react, a delay that cost lives.

Mitchell did not immediately respond to an email sent to her office Thursday.

Uvalde prosecutors and Judge Camile DuBose seated the grand jury in January, the day after federal officials released a U.S. Justice Department report that condemned the response.

The federal report described a chaotic, unorganized scene in which there was no command and control by officers — during a period when trapped children were calling 911 for help — and it put blame on the school district's police chief, Pete Arredondo, who tried negotiating with a killer, who had already shot his way into the classroom, while having his officers search for keys to unlock the rooms.

By the time a Border Patrol tactical team entered the classroom, 77 minutes had passed from when the gunman first walked into the school.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Multiple officers involved in Uvalde shooting called to a grand jury