AG: Hold report on Cummings shooting
The Texas Attorney General’s Office has instructed Brownsville police not to release a copy of the police report pertaining to last month’s shooting at Cummings Middle School that left one student dead.
Jaime Gonzalez Jr., 15, an eighth-grader at the school, was shot and killed by two police officers on Jan. 4. Authorities said he pointed a handgun at the officers and refused to put it down, after he was repeatedly told to do so. The handgun later turned out to be a pellet gun.
Last month, The Brownsville Herald filed an open records request with the police department seeking a copy of the police report.
However, in a letter dated Feb. 3 to Brownsville police, the AG states that the report cannot be released in accordance to section 58.007 of the Family Code. It reads "you must withhold the submitted information."
According to section 58.007, juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after Sept. 1, 1997 are confidential.
A preliminary autopsy report indicates the cause of death was two gunshot wounds, one in the chest and one in the abdomen. Pathologist Elizabeth J. Miller also noted in the report that Gonzalez had a laceration to the right side of his head, which is consistent with a fall.
Officials at the pathology lab at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen had said autopsies usually take anywhere from four to six weeks to complete. In some cases, they can take up to eight weeks. As of Monday, the complete autopsy report had not been returned to the office of Justice of the Peace Kip Van Johnson Hodge, who pronounced Gonzalez dead and ordered an autopsy.
The Herald has also filed an open records request with the AG’s office to get a copy of the custodial death report police turned over the AG’s office last week.
State statute dictates custodial death reports be submitted to the AG’s Office 30 days after the death, if the death involves a person in custody, said Ricardo Navarro, the attorney representing the city and those employed by the city, in an earlier interview.
Because Gonzalez was considered to be in custody of police at the time of his death, the police department is required to submit the report.
It was anticipated that police would turn over the case file to the Cameron County District’s Attorney Office last week for review. However, that date was pushed back because there were still some details that needed to be addressed.
