UVALDE, Texas – The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has released a trove of records on the Robb Elementary School shooting.
The records include emails, Texas Public Information Act requests from reporters and student records about the 18-year-old gunman. Former UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo’s personnel records and text messages were also included in the records.
>> READ THE RECORDS: Uvalde CISD releases records from Robb Elementary shooting
Arredondo and former officer Adrian Gonzales both face multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment. Both men have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for trial later this year.
Last month, a state appeals court judge sided with KSAT and other media organizations in a 2022 lawsuit against the district and county seeking the release of their records related to the mass shooting.
Uvalde CISD notified families of the victims about the impending release on Friday afternoon, according to a letter reviewed by KSAT Investigates.
“This step is taken with the utmost respect and commitment to building trust and transparency within our school community,” according to the district’s letter.
Here are the takeaways from the district records, which were released on Monday.
Shooter’s UCISD records released
The shooter, Salvador Ramos, had at least 22 discipline incidents in middle school and high school, records show. KSAT does not typically name suspects in mass shootings, but is doing so in this story since his disciplinary records were released for the first time.
Discipline issues ended around his sophomore year because he stopped attending school regularly. He was withdrawn from the high school in October 2021 for poor academic performance and lack of attendance, records show.
At the time of his withdrawal, he had all failing grades, except for one A.
Incidents involved threatening a teacher to multiple fights, throwing a student’s backpack in a trash can, repeated instances of using homophobic language and curse words in the classroom.
He had good attendance in kindergarten and his preschool screening was normal, records show.
He was first identified as an at-risk student in third grade (2012-2013 school year), and was again labeled at risk in October 2018, while a freshman.
His health history was heavily redacted.
Lockdown procedures, other security plans unknown
Security plans for fires, building evacuations and lockdown procedures were nearly completely redacted in a presentation that was sent to Arredondo in August 2021.
Records show UCISD police hosted active shooting training for school-based law enforcement on March 21, 2022, which was previously reported by KSAT.
The course took place at Uvalde High School, with Gonzales and Mike Hernandez as the instructors. Gonzales was later indicted on 29 counts of abandoning/endangering a child after authorities said he failed to protect children during the shooting.
The type of instruction included lectures, role play, practical applications and force-on-force scenarios, according to records with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
One of the courses was titled, “Stop the Killing - Solo Response to Active Shooter Events.” Another course focused on the priorities of action for school-based law enforcement.
One of the scenarios was about someone walking into a school with a high-powered rifle.
Text messages between Arredondo and Gonzales
The release included a handful of text exchanges between Arredondo and others at the district that were sent before the shooting.
At 9:04 a.m., the chief told Gonzales to “go hang out at the park with the seniors until 11:30.”
At 11:40 a.m., a text to Arredondo from a district secretary noted someone reported hearing shots outside Robb.
“They went ahead and locked themselves down,” the text to Arredondo read.
At 1:07 p.m., a text to Arredondo asked if any students were injured or taken to the hospital and asked if the district could lift the “secure status” on the school.
The shooter had been killed by law enforcement about 15 minutes earlier.
Arredondo’s letter of administrative leave released
Arredondo was placed on administrative leave with pay on June 22, 2022, according to a letter from then-UCISD Superintendent Hal Harrell.
His salary and benefits were not affected.
Harrell directed Arredondo to fully cooperate with the investigations as directed by district personnel and federal and state authorities.
According to the letter, Arredondo could not make any statements on behalf of the district, enter any district property or attend school events without Harrell’s permission.
Arredondo was ordered to turn over district property to Harrell by June 22, 2022. Arredondo had a Glock 22.40 caliber, per a Sabinal Police Department record of firearms proficiency.
Arredondo was the District 3 city councilman at the time of the shooting but resigned in July 2022. He was fired from UCISD in August 2022.
Security firm recommended locks weeks before shooting
Days after the shooting, Christopher Davila, a regional sales manager of Alarm Lock, a security company specializing in locks, emailed Harrell.
The sales manager said he had visited the district to talk about options to secure exterior entrances and planned to talk about solutions during a May 2022 board meeting.
“I have been calling on your district for years and still want to assist with securing the district, if you need anything please reach out,” Davila wrote.
Employee compiled ‘a list of false claims’ about the shooting
On June 2, 2022, an employee sent an email to Michael Rodriguez, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, that listed “false claims that are being made about the Uvalde shooting.”
Below is a portion of the email, in part:
“CLAIM Police were too scared to enter the school until Border Patrol got there.
“FALSE Police entered the school 4 minutes after the initial 911 call. As they approached the classroom where the shooter was, he shot through the wall injuring 2 officers. Police could not return fire for risk of injuring kids inside, and they were only equipped with handguns.
“CLAIM A border Patrol agent retrieved a shotgun from his barber, and entered the school to take out the shooter because the police wouldn’t.
“FALSE An agent did retrieve a shotgun from his barber and entered the school, but he stacked up in the hallway with police.
“CLAIM Police sat in the hallway for 40 minutes while the shooter killed 19 kids.
“FALSE The shooter shot 18 kids in the 4 minutes before the police entered the building. He then shot 2 of those officers, but there wasn’t a single shot fired from the time they dragged both officers out until BORTAC arrived on scene. During that time, police kept the gunman pinned in one location, evacuated the rest of the school, and eventually found the Principal who was hiding with the master key.
“EDIT 6/2/22 @ 1pm It was initially understood that BORTAC called out to the students inside the classroom, and the gunman shot the girl who did; however, we’ve just received a message from a Uvalde family stating that a boy inside the classroom said “to fool everyone in the room the gunman yelled out “if anyone needs help. Yell Help”. A girl in the classroom yelled and the gunman shot her. This is what prompted BORTAC to breach the door.
“CLAIM Police should’ve found a way to breach the door earlier.
“MOSTLY-FALSE There is no one right answer in these situations as there are too many variables; however, the police were shot through a concrete wall. The classroom door was an outward opening steel door set into a concrete wall with a steel door frame. This type of door is incredibly difficult to breach without special tools, and they are designed to keep active shooters out.”
In reference to placing blame on officers, especially those who had kids inside the school, a district employee says in the fact-checking document, “This is similar to Vietnam Veterans returning home from the war to be met with protests of people calling them Baby Killers and spitting on them.”
Teacher knew she didn’t leave door propped open
In a letter to Harrell on May 28, 2022, an employee said she met with a teacher in the hospital.
The teacher told her she did not leave an exit door propped open, despite claims from then-Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw.
McCraw initially said the shooter gained access to the school by entering a door that was propped open.
The email to Harrell stated, in part:
“The Texas Ranger and FBI agent came to say that after reviewing the surveillance cameras in the school that her statement was accurate and they can clearly see that she did not leave that door propped open. She in fact kicked the rock out of the doorway and used her hands to pull shut the door from the bar. They said now they will have to investigate if the door was faulty or if perhaps it had not been locked from the outside to begin with. They said they had not spoken to Director McCraw from DPS when he made the claim at the press conference on Friday, May 27 that the door had been left propped open by a teacher, a door the intruder used to enter the Robb Elementary School, and they apologized for the misinformation.”
McCraw also made additional claims that were later proven inaccurate during the investigation, such as stating that his troopers had confronted the shooter immediately.
Uvalde County releases records and nearly seven hours of footage
On Tuesday, Uvalde County released thousands of public records including emails, text messages and nearly seven hours worth of footage from May 24, 2022.
Bodycam footage shows moments before, during and after the deadly shooting.
In one video, an officer involved in the initial response can be heard saying, “We can’t see him at all” before adding, “We were at the front and he started shooting.”
The officer wearing the body cam asks: “He’s in a classroom right?” Another officer responds: “With kids.”
The county’s records are the final batch of documents that local authorities withheld during a years-long legal battle over public access. Family members of the victims were among those pushing for the records to be released.
A Texas appeals court ruled in favor of KSAT 12 and other news organizations’ request for the release of school and county records from law enforcement’s response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
In separate meetings last month, Uvalde CISD and Uvalde County voted to stop fighting the appeal and release the records.
The district released the following letter to the community on Friday:
Dear Uvalde CISD School Community, We wish to inform you about important developments concerning the records of the tragic events that unfolded on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School. Our district’s law firm, Walsh Gallegos, is releasing these records to the media outlets that initiated the lawsuit, with the release scheduled for the week of August 11, 2025.
Information has been communicated to our district’s law firm, indicating that the County is set to release records pertaining to the events of May 24, 2022, to media outlets next week. These records may include video footage. This decision to release the records is made with the most profound respect for our school community and is part of our ongoing commitment to building trust and ensuring transparency. We have pledged to inform our families and the greater Uvalde school community about the release of these documents before they are made available to the media, and this notice serves to uphold that promise.
We recognize the profound impact this tragedy continues to have on everyone involved—our students, families, staff, and the entire Uvalde school community. As we journey through the process of healing and rebuilding, the district remains dedicated to offering support and maintaining transparency.
Please know that we stand by each school community member, ready to support, heal, and rebuild together.
Respectfully, The Uvalde CISD Board of Trustees and Ashley Chohlis
Background
On May 24, 2022, a gunman walked into Robb Elementary in Uvalde and opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers in two adjoining classrooms. Officers did not breach the door and kill the 18-year-old gunman until about 77 minutes after the first officers arrived at the school, even as students inside the classrooms called 911.
The response to the shooting and the handling of the investigation have been heavily scrutinized, with the Department of Justice finding “cascading failures” in law enforcement’s handling of the massacre.
Gloria Cazares, whose daughter Jackie was killed in the shooting, explained why she wanted the records to be released during a school board meeting last month.
“It’s about making sure what happens to my daughter never happens to another child,” Cazares said at the meeting. “I’m here today to demand the truth. You all owe it to Jackie, to her classmates, to her teachers.”
The City of Uvalde became the first agency to release its records from the shooting in 2024 after being sued by media outlets. A Uvalde police sergeant retired after he was placed on leave for failing to include additional videos in the initial release.
Texas’ Department of Public Safety has yet to release its records from the shooting. KSAT 12 and other news organizations have asked a state appeals court to order the agency to make the records public.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.