AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force three U.S. Border Patrol agents who responded to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting to testify in the prosecution of the former school police chief, who is facing criminal charges over the slow law enforcement action at the massacre.
The lawsuit from Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell filed on May 9 claims the testimony from the three officers, two of whom were part of the tactical team that eventually broke into a classroom and killed the gunman, is vital to the case against former school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who faces multiple counts of child endangerment and abandonment.
According to the lawsuit, the agents gave written statements early in the state investigation into the shooting and the response from nearly 400 local, state and federal officers who waited more than an hour to breach the classroom where the gunman was located. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two teachers were killed, and 18 more people were injured, in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
But U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have since then denied multiple requests to make the agents available for testimony about the law enforcement response, their tactical training, equipment and other topics.
The information sought “is extraordinarily significant” because the agents are “uniquely qualified to clarify how Arredondo’s actions, omissions, and orders as incident commander influenced their actions,” the lawsuit said.
Customs and Border Protection officials did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday seeking comment.
The lawsuit seeks federal court help because a state court cannot compel the agents to testify on matters that relate to their official duties.
The testimony could also be valuable to Arredondo if the agents’ accounts present mitigating information for his actions that day, the lawsuit said. And it noted that Mitchell has offered to seek a court order granting the agents immunity for their cooperation and testimony.
The lawsuit does not name the three agents but identifies one of them as the “tactical commander who directed and participated in the entry” of the classroom by officers.
The lawsuit said Border Patrol officials have claimed prosecutors can find the information they want from other responding law enforcement agencies. Border Patrol has also said the agents’ testimony could reveal classified information or confidential sources, disclose law enforcement techniques or “interfere with the orderly conduct of CBP business.”
Arredondo and former Uvalde schools officer Adrian Gonzales are the only two responding law enforcement officers that day to be charged and are scheduled for trial in October. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
According to the lawsuit, because Gonzales was indicted over his conduct prior to the arrival of the Border Patrol, the request to compel testimony from the agents is not part of his case.
Multiple investigations into the response have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Paul Looney, an attorney for Arredondo, said he also has been frustrated by Border Patrol’s refusal to let its agents testify, and questioned why prosecutors aren’t demanding to speak to more of them. The lawsuit said prosecutors initially wanted to speak with 18 agents, but narrowed it down to try to get Border Patrol’s cooperation.
“We want all of them. We want to know what they saw, what they heard,” Looney said. “One level of government is completely frustrating our ability to know what happened in there.”
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