The president is not pushing for a video to be released showing victims or images of violence, according to this source.
Deputy Dustin Burrows, chairman of the committee, is banned from posting the 77-minute video of the “corridor” of law enforcement response because he signed a confidentiality agreement with the Texas Department of Public Safety, Burrows revealed on Twitter Friday.
Burrows attached two letters to his tweet. In a letter, he asked permission from the DPS to release the video to the public. The other letter is a DPS response that says the agency agrees that the video will bring “clarity to the public about the tragic events in Uvalde,” but that the district attorney in Uvalde has “opposed video posting “.
Burrow’s tweet states that the video he is pushing to post “does not contain images of victims or images of violence.”
On Thursday, the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, refuted a new assessment of law enforcement’s response to the shooting, saying the report from the Rapid Response Training Center for the implementation of the law (ALERRT) “does not give a complete and accurate account of what happened.”
McLaughlin disagreed with the first part of the report, which said a Uvalde police officer with a rifle saw the gunman outside the school, but a supervisor did not hear the officer or he responded too late when the officer asked permission to shoot.
“No officer in the Uvalde police department saw the shooter on May 24 before he entered the school,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “No Uvalde police officer had any chance to shoot the gunman.”
CNN contacted Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee on Friday and Sunday to ask her to comment on why she opposes the video’s release, but has received no response.
According to the same source, the preliminary report of the House of Texas Research Committee will shed light on conflicting accounts of previous reviews of what happened on May 24th. The report will include textual citations of sworn witnesses, the source said.
The next Texas House Committee of Inquiry hearing is scheduled for Monday, July 11 at 9 a.m. CT in Austin.
The full list of eyewitnesses has not been made public. But Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco told CNN on Sunday that he plans to testify Monday. Nolasco said his testimony will be by video conference, not in person.
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) created the three-member committee last month. Burrows, a Republican, was named president; Representative Joe Moody (D) was named vice president; and former Texas Supreme Court Judge Eva Guzman is a member.
The purpose of the inquiry committee is to investigate the facts. Two other committees of the Chamber, Youth Health and Safety and National Security and Public Safety, will be tasked with making legislative recommendations.