UVALDE, Texas — The families of three children who survived the Uvalde mass shooting in May have filed the first lawsuit in a federal court against the Uvalde school district, law enforcement officials, gun makers and others, alleging that their negligence and failures contributed to the massacre.
The suit was filed Wednesday in Texas’ Western District Court and is seeking undetermined damages. One of the children in the lawsuit was wounded in the shooting and was best friends with one of the students killed, according to the lawyers.
“We are after accountability and damages, and because my plaintiffs are young, they will have to deal with the trauma of what they went through,” said Stephanie Sherman, the families’ lawyer. “It’s just a perfect soup of lack of care, and I can’t help but think this poor community was not protected in any way.”
In all, the suit names 10 defendants, including Robb Elementary School's principal Mandy Gutierrez, the city of Uvalde and the since-fired school district police chief, Pete Arredondo.
Gutierrez's lawyer released the following statement in response to the lawsuit:
“I think I recall correctly from my elementary school nuns teaching Texas History that there were 200 guys with guns on the grounds of the Alamo up against an Army of 1800. There were around 350 guys with guns on the grounds of Robb Elementary up against an Army of 1.
Mandy wasn’t one of those guys. That’s pretty much all you need to know.”
The city of Uvalde released this statement to KHOU 11:
The City of Uvalde has no comment on pending litigation.
About a month ago, another law firm served the Uvalde school district with a $27 billion claim over the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
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This is a developing story; check back for details.
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This is the lawsuit that was filed.