SAN ANTONIO – Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell is suing to force three Border Patrol agents to testify in a former Uvalde CISD police chief’s case, a lawsuit obtained by KSAT Investigates shows.
Mitchell said the three agents are an “essential” part of ex-Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo‘s case, according to court records.
Last summer, a grand jury indicted him on 10 counts of abandoning/endangering a child.
Law enforcement had been criticized for the 77-minute delay in confronting the shooter who killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in May 2022.
Arredondo has repeatedly said he was wrongfully charged and argued that the shooter was the one who endangered the victims, not law enforcement.
Two of the three agents, whom Mitchell wants to testify, were involved in killing the shooter. The third officer, according to the lawsuit, was in the hallway during most of the incident.
Mitchell said the testimony from the agents is crucial to see how Arredondo communicated with them, according to court records.
According to the federal lawsuit, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not allowed agents to be interviewed by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s investigation or to testify before a grand jury.
In December 2024, attorneys for Arredondo and co-defendant Adrian Gonzales said Border Patrol and the Texas House Investigative Committee are not complying with discovery requests and are specifically trying to redact the names of witnesses.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.
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