U.S. News
Uvalde shooting survivors file $27 billion class action suit
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Families of the victims and survivors of the Uvalde mass shooting at Robb Elementary School filed a $27 billion class-action lawsuit against the city, the school district, the police and other entities.
- Nineteen children and two teachers were killed by a gunman who entered the elementary school in May.
- The incident shocked the country, even more, when it was revealed that law enforcers waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter.
Victims of the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school in May have filed a $27 billion class-action lawsuit against an array of public entities and officials, seeking damages for ongoing trauma.
The suit filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas names the city of Uvalde, its police department, the school district, the state Department of Public Safety and several police and school officials, alleging they failed to follow protocols for an active shooter.
The May 24 tragedy rocked the United States as the slaughtered schoolchildren were aged 9 to 11 and police waited more than an hour, while some children called for help, before storming the classroom and killing the shooter.
It was the deadliest U.S. school shooting in almost a decade, and many children were wounded.
The class-action suit seeks damages for the survivors including parents whose children were killed and kids who witnessed the massacre, said attorney Charles Bonner, whose California law firm brought the suit. Anyone else in the “zone of danger” could join the suit, Bonner said.
“Parents were telling us that kids are threatening suicide, they’re totally changed from what they were on May 23, the day before the incident,” Bonner told reporters in Uvalde on Wednesday.
“One child is having the nightmare that she’s having a heart attack. In fact two children. The parents are traumatized because they’ve seen this totally night-and-day change.”
A spokesperson for the city of Uvalde said on Thursday the city had not been served with the lawsuit and would not comment on pending litigation.
Representatives for the Uvalde Police Department, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, the Department of Public Safety and the former chief of the school district’s police force did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bonner said he was working with the gun violence prevention advocates Everytown in conjunction with a separate suit that Everytown filed on Monday against many of the same defendants plus Daniel Defense, the maker of the AR-15-style firearm used by the 18-year-old shooter.
Daniel Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Separately, the city of Uvalde on Thursday sued District Attorney Christina Mitchell for not handing over investigative materials related to the shooting. The city is asking a state judge to compel Mitchell’s office to hand over records from all law enforcement agencies.
The district attorney’s office said it had no comment on the lawsuit.
Source: CNN
Cyndie Aquilina
December 2, 2022 at 7:55 pm
Ban assault weapons. Mandatory insurance on all guns. There is no excuse for school shootings. None. The shooters, the gun manufacturers, the bullet producers all bear responsibility. All should be held to account.
CharlieSeattle
December 3, 2022 at 12:25 am
…shall not be infringed!
The shooter and the cowardly cops bear responsibility.
TGP389
December 3, 2022 at 5:42 pm
Did the shooter arrive by car? Let’s sue the auto maker. Did he shoot them inside? Let’s sue the builder of the school. Was the electric lighting on in the classroom? Oh, sue the utility company.
The firearm didn’t kill those people; yhe SHOOTER did. Would you feel better if he poured 5 gallons of gasoline on the floor and burned them to death? That happened at a sotware development building in Japan. Would you want gas stations shut down?
The largest shool murder yet was done with dynamite, and 3,000 people in NYC were killed with box cutters and passenger jets. Yet, I don’t hear a hue and cry to ban box cutters or passenger planes
Get your head out of your alimentary canal and stop confusing the instrumentality of the crime with the culprit.
NolanR.
December 5, 2022 at 7:30 pm
That is pure bullshit! You must be a dimocrat!
jack froste
December 6, 2022 at 9:41 am
you are an idiot, do you want to ban cars because of drunk drivers? spoons because they make people fat? only morons want to ban the tool not the animal that uses it! get a brain!!
Gerard Noone
December 6, 2022 at 10:31 pm
That is profoundly wrong. There is responsibility on the shooter’s part, and culpability on the shooter’s part and the police who failed to stop him, allowing more innocents to die, to be wounded, to be traumatized. To blame the weapon, the ammunition and the gun manufacturer for this is like blaming GM every time a drunk driver in one of their vehicles kills or injured someone. Yours is a knee jerk reaction that is unconstitutional, illegal and ultimately won’t stop killers from killing others. Personal accountability places the blame on the SHOOTER, not the shooter’ TOOLS.
CharlieSeattle
December 3, 2022 at 12:22 am
Laughable!
A $27 billion class-action lawsuit against the city, the school district, the police and …..other entities??? …meaning the city taxpayers …themselves!
I hereby sue myself for more more than I am worth.
BTW, the lawyers will get half. Laughable!
Paul E
December 5, 2022 at 6:32 am
My thoughts exactly. There ought to be a way to sue the individuals responsible. That way we punish the people responsible and not the taxpayers!
tim
December 4, 2022 at 7:41 am
a continuing nightmare of sorrow