UVALDE, Texas — A state lawmaker is demanding the Texas Department of Public Safety have a legislative committee review its internal investigation of how the agency responded to the Uvalde massacre.
25 News obtained the letter first on Monday from State Sen. Roland Gutierrez that will be sent to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Tuesday morning.
Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, has been critical of the state law enforcement agency since the school shooting and said the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice should review the findings of the internal DPS investigation.
"Why has DPS decided to conduct this internal audit now 55 days after the attack on Robb Elementary School?," State Sen. Gutierrez said in the letter.
On Monday, a Texas DPS announcement said the agency would launch an internal investigation into how its 91 officers responded during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary on May 24 that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.
"Can this entity be trusted to review its own inaction and failures," Gutierrez said about the announcement.
Uvalde Police Department video shows one officer who was shot at moments before, telling a @TxDPS trooper “we’ve got to get in there.” Later he made a phone call to what appears to be another law enforcement agency asking for help.#Uvalde #UvaldePolice #uvaldevideo pic.twitter.com/BCXQry7nji
— Nick Bradshaw (@nbradshawtv) July 18, 2022
The review comes after an 80-page report from a Texas House committee found that "law enforcement on all levels failed" that day.
"It is our obligation as the Texas Senate to seek accountability from DPS and its public employees and officials," said Gutierrez.
The state's top law enforcement agency confirmed that criminal charges could be on the table for any potential wrongdoing that day.
"The ongoing criminal investigation by the Texas Rangers has included examining the actions of every member of a law enforcement agency that day," Travis Considine, DPS Assistant Chief of the Media and Communications Office told 25 News.
The agency had the second largest number of officers responding to the shooting that day, second only to U.S. Border and Customs Protection, which had 149 officers in Uvalde.
"The criminal investigation always takes precedent but is typically followed by a comprehensive administrative review of this nature," Considine said.
