Uvalde Survivors File $A40 Billion Suit

Uvalde Survivors File $A40 Billion Suit – In a development that highlights the duty of care owed the community by security and law enforcement procedures, Uvalde school shooting survivors have filed a $40 billion lawsuit.

The suit seeks damages from local and state police, the city of Uvalde, and school and law enforcement officials, it says failed to follow ‘active shooter protocol’ and waiting more than 60 minutes to confront an attacker in a 4th grade classroom, who later killed 19 children and 2 teachers, and wounded 17 others, some severely.

According to the suit, instead of following active shooter training, “the conduct of the 376 law enforcement officials who were on hand for the exhaustively torturous 77 minutes of law enforcement indecision, dysfunction, and harm, fell exceedingly short of their duty-bound standards.”

The suit seeks class action status and damages for survivors of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School who have sustained “emotional or psychological damages as a result of the defendants’ conduct and omissions on that date.”

Another group of survivors has also sued Daniel Defense, the company that made the gun used by the shooter, as well as the store where he bought 2 assault rifles, in a separate lawsuit seeking $9 billion in damages.

The AR15 used by the Uvalde shooter had been modified with a Hellfire trigger device that technically allowed the weapon to fire at a rate of 900 rounds a minute.

In July Congressman Joaquin Castro led 24 members of Congress in a letter urging Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) director Steven Dettelbach to prohibit the sale of Hellfire trigger devices and clarify the ATF’s positions on binary triggers, forced-reset triggers, and Hellfire triggers.

While the school’s video surveillance system provided coverage of events unfolding in many parts of the school, questions have been asked as to why it was possible for a former student to access the facility through an unsecured rear door undetected.

In January 2020, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District received $US69,000 from a $US100 million state grant to enhance physical security in Texas public schools, though security experts say such target hardening does little to protect campuses from armed offenders.

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