Seven years after the August 3, 2019, Walmart mass shooting in El Paso, the public still has not seen a single investigative record from the city or the District Attorney’s Office. On Thursday, nonprofit newsroom El Paso Matters filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to change that, asking a state judge to release the files under the Texas Public Information Act. The case is assigned to 243rd District Court Judge Selena Solis.

The obstacle is a legal theory that surprises a lot of people. The Texas Attorney General’s Office has repeatedly ruled the records can stay secret, agreeing with the city and DA that the shooting qualifies as a child abuse investigation under the Family Code because a 15-year-old was killed and an infant was injured in the attack. The lawsuit argues that reasoning misreads the statute, since the Family Code governs caregiver abuse or neglect cases involving Child Protective Services, and Patrick Crusius had no relationship with any of his victims.

Crusius, now 27, pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in 2023 and state capital murder in 2025. He is serving life without parole. With no trial left to protect, the question becomes whether a child abuse exemption can seal an entire mass shooting investigation, a precedent that could shape transparency in high-profile cases across Texas. What unanswered questions about El Paso do you think the public still deserves to have addressed?