Victims of the Uvalde school shooting have filed a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit against police, along with city and school officials, for the massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The suit, filed in federal court in Austin Tuesday, claims that officials, including law enforcement, failed to protect children and teachers from an armed attacker inside a fourth-grade classroom during the May 24 shooting spree. The lawsuit is seeking $27 billion for survivors, who continue to suffer “emotional or psychological damages as a result of the defendants’ conduct and omissions on that date.”
Among the plaintiffs are school staff and the representatives of children who were present at Robb Elementary School when 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos burst onto the school grounds, killing 19 children and two teachers.
Instead of immediately trying to stop the shooter, “the conduct of the three hundred and seventy-six (376) law enforcement officials who were on hand for the exhaustively torturous seventy-seven minutes of law enforcement indecision, dysfunction, and harm, fell exceedingly short of their duty bound standards,” the lawsuit claims.
City of Uvalde officials had not been served with the lawsuit as of Friday afternoon, according to a report.
Prior to filing the class action suit, the families sought a $27 billion settlement from the school district, multiple law enforcement agencies and the city in August, seeking to resolve the matter without going to court.
The mother of Eliana Torres, 10, who was killed in the attack, filed another federal lawsuit against many of the same people and entities on Monday.
A group of survivors has also sued Daniel Defense, the company that manufactures the fire-arm used in the shooting. That suit seeks $6 billion.
With Post wires
