A district court judge in Texas sealed the autopsy reports of Uvalde school shooting victims until after the investigation was over, according to reports.
The ruling prevents the victim’s families and the public from seeing the records of the 19 students and two teachers who were killed during a shooting at Robb Elementary school.
Judge Camile Dubose of the 38th District Court in Uvalde ordered that the autopsy reports be sealed and provided to the local district attorney on Friday.
Prosecutors said that “releasing the details of the wounds inflicted from the Robb Elementary shooting would unnecessarily flood the airways with highly emotionally charged information, jeopardising the fair resolution of a prosecution”, the local media reported.
Releasing the autopsy reports of the Uvalde school shooting victims could help determine whether faster police action would have saved any victims’ lives.
But district attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee asked the judge to seal the reports, arguing that “release of the details contained in the autopsy records... would alert potential suspects of information that law enforcement needs to preserve until the investigation and potential questioning of such suspects is completed”.
Law enforcement officials have been accused of waiting and wasting time before killing the school shooter.
Senator Roland Gutierrez [D-Uvalde] was quoted as saying by KENS5: “That’s the space we’re in. Everything for the last six months has been hidden by this agency and by people in power to cover up their failures.”
He added: “It’s important to find out if those children were alive, and at what time”
At least four victims were alive when federal agents breached the classroom door to kill the gunman. One of the victims died on the way to a San Antonio hospital, two died at Uvalde Memorial hospital and another died inside an ambulance outside the school.
Law enforcement waited 77 minutes to kill the shooter.
