The Brownsville Herald is continuing to press authorities about the January shooting death of a 15-year-old student by Brownsville police, now asking Cameron County authorities for a copy of a security video tape at the scene of the shooting.

The two officers involved in the shooting of 8th grader Jaime Gonzalez Jr., Everardo Longoria and Raul E. Cazares, were no-billed by a grand jury in August.

The Herald asked for the video shortly after the shooting, but the dispute over the public nature of the material has bounced around for months.

The paper has received some of the material it asked for, including a key police report that shows a police sergeant gave a shoot-to-kill order.

The lawyer representing the Herald in the open records pursuits, John Bussian, poses this question in the most recent story:  “How would the public ever have any confidence that this investigation and no bill by the grand jury wasn’t a whitewash if the public couldn’t see the video? The public information act clearly allows public access in this case where no one was ever charged with a crime. If no one was charged, this is the only way the public is ever going to be satisfied with the decision made by the grand jury. … All this does is create suspicion in the mind of the public.”

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Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.

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Photo of police tape by flickr user freefotouk4, used via a Creative Commons license.