El Paso Matters challenges secrecy over Walmart shooting investigation records

El Paso Matters filed a lawsuit Thursday asking a state judge to lift a blanket of near-total secrecy on records in the 2019 Walmart mass shooting held by El Paso police and prosecutors.

The petition seeks a writ of mandamus, an order from a judge to a government official to perform a mandatory legal duty required by law.

El Paso Matters is asking a judge to order the District Attorney’s Office and the city of El Paso to make investigative records from the Walmart mass shooting investigation available to the public as outlined in the Texas Public Information Act. The case was assigned to 243rd District Court Judge Selena Solis.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office issued several rulings over the past 18 months that said the public should never have access to investigative records in the deadliest mass shooting targeting Hispanics in modern U.S. history. The Attorney General’s Office agreed with arguments from the city and district attorney that the mass shooting investigation was a child abuse investigation under the Texas Family Code, and records of such investigations are confidential.

The El Paso Matters lawsuit asserts that the decision is based on a misreading of Texas law.

“(T)he investigation and prosecution of (Patrick) Crusius did not concern an investigation of alleged or suspected child abuse or neglect. Furthermore, the information requested was not developed in an investigation under Chapter 261 (the Family Code) and therefore is not subject to Chapter 261 withholding,” the lawsuit alleges.

In a statement, El Paso District Attorney James Montoya said his office “handles all open record requests in accordance with Texas law, including seeking rulings from the Office of the Attorney General when the information or records requested may or are required to be withheld from public disclosure. We recognize that the events of Aug. 3, 2019, continue to weigh heavily on our community, most especially the victims and their families, as we remain cognizant of that fact as we continue to litigate what information may or may be publicly disclosed.”

City officials declined to comment because the matter involves pending litigation.

El Paso Matters is represented in its motion by the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law First Amendment Clinic, with support from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Under Texas law, records held by police and prosecutors about investigations generally are considered public records after the investigation and trials are complete. One major exception are child abuse investigations that are conducted under the Family Code.

Adults comprised the vast majority of the 23 people killed and 22 people injured in the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart, many of them in their 60s or older. But when news organizations and others sought investigative records in the shooting, both the city of El Paso and the DA’s Office said the records involved a child abuse investigation – a 15-year-old was killed, an infant injured and other children were present in the store – and are therefore confidential under Texas law.

The Attorney General’s Office – which reviews requests by state and local government to withhold records that are sought under the Texas Public Information Act – agreed with that position and ordered the city and DA to keep secret all investigative and prosecutorial records of the Walmart mass shooting.

The Attorney General’s Office has been incorrectly applying the Family Code for years, keeping the public from accessing information about crimes to which it is entitled, said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, which advocates for government transparency.

“The Family Code shielding public records from release applies to caregiver situations in which child neglect or abuse is alleged and Child Protective Services is involved,” she said.

“Unfortunately, this provision is being misconstrued by the Attorney General’s Office and invoked in non-caregiver situations any time a minor is present, when CPS is not even involved. The AG’s Office goes out of its way to apply this Family Code provision to these kinds of public records. In the El Paso case, none of the children present in the Walmart during the mass shooting were part of a Child Protective Services case. They were just kids in the store, and, sadly, they were present during the horrific attack.”

The Attorney General’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment from El Paso Matters.

The city and DA have not made public any investigative records from the Walmart mass shooting. The FBI, which handled the federal investigation of the Walmart shooting, has not yet provided records requested by El Paso Matters under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Patrick Crusius, now 27, pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and weapons charges in 2023, and to state capital murder and aggravated assault charges in 2025. Both pleas came after prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty, and he is serving dozens of sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In his guilty pleas, Crusius’ attorneys admitted that he acted in an effort to stop what he saw as “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Because there was no trial, and the El Paso police and prosecutors have not released investigative records, the public has received limited information about the evidence in the attack.

“The public certainly has a right to know what happened during the Walmart shooting. We need to know how it happened, what safeguards might have failed and how law enforcement responded. Investigative records can help answer these questions,” Shannon said. “Just as we need to know what occurred in the Uvalde school shooting in 2022, the public understandably has lingering questions about the El Paso mass shooting. Answers to these questions might help to prevent a tragedy like this in the future.”

The petition from El Paso Matters asserts that the Walmart mass shooting investigation was not a child abuse investigation as spelled out in the Family Code, and can’t be used as a legal reason to withhold all records in the case. The Family Code applies to investigations of abuse or neglect that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services believes involve “a person responsible for a child’s care, custody, or welfare,” according to the lawsuit

“The records requested by El Paso Matters concerned a homicide investigation arising from a public shooting by Patrick Crusius. Notably, Crusius had no relationship with the victims, including any caregiving relationship,” the lawsuit said.

Using the Texas Public Information Act, El Paso Matters asked the Department of Family and Protective Services earlier this year for any records that indicated it had been involved in a child abuse investigation in connection with the Walmart mass shooting. In response, the department provided no records and pointed to its online policy handbook and its annual data reports – neither of which mention the mass shooting.

“The Legislature made the records of Chapter 261 investigations confidential to protect those who report abuse and the child and families who are the subject of abuse investigations,” the El Paso Matters lawsuit said. “Withholding the records here advances none of those purposes: no child abuse was reported, no caregiver is implicated, and no child protective investigation occurred.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety – which played a supporting role in the shooting investigation – last year released a video of the police interrogation of Crusius in response to a records request from a YouTube channel, along with a video in which the FBI compiled store camera footage to trace the gunman’s movements.

DPS – which did not seek an attorney general ruling on whether it could withhold requested information – also released dozens of gruesome crime scene photos.

The YouTube channel, Interrogation Files , shared the video and photos received from DPS with El Paso Matters and other media. El Paso Matters used the information for a story reconstructing the shooting , but didn’t publish sensitive video or photo evidence.

Disclosure: In 2019, El Paso Matters was among recipients of $5,000 matching grants from Walmart during the El Paso Giving Day campaign. District Judge Selena Solis has been a financial supporter of El Paso Matters. Financial supporters play no role in El Paso Matters’ journalism. The news organization’s policy on editorial independence can be found here .

This story was originally published by El Paso Matters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.