The gun-maker being sued by families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School is seeking records for some students killed in the massacre.
After Remington, which made the Bushmaster assault-style AR-15 rifle that was used in the shooting, filed subpoenas to obtain report cards, attendance records, and other academic documents for five students who were killed at the school on Dec. 14, 2012, lawyers for the nine families that sued Remington moved on Thursday to seal those records.
“We have no explanation for why Remington subpoenaed the Newtown Public School District to obtain the kindergarten and first grade academic, attendance, and disciplinary records of these five schoolchildren,” the families’ lead attorney, Josh Koskoff, said, according to the Connecticut Post. “The records cannot possibly excuse Remington’s egregious marketing conduct or be of any assistance in estimating the catastrophic damages in this case. The only relevant part of their attendance records is that they were at their desks on Dec. 14, 2012.”
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A legal source familiar with the case who spoke under the condition of anonymity said it is routine in wrongful death lawsuits for the defense team to subpoena education and medical records to determine the damages, according to Time.
“It may sound crass, but at the end of the day, the jury is asked to put a dollar number on the decedent’s life,” the source said, adding that employment files revealing salaries, for example, could help determine dollar figures in similar cases.
The move by the gun manufacturer marks the latest action ahead of the jury trial for the landmark wrongful death lawsuit scheduled for later this year or early 2022, according to attorneys for the families.
Twenty children and six faculty members were killed at the Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, by 26-year-old Adam Lanza, who later killed himself. Following the shooting, the relatives of nine victims pressed wrongful death charges against Remington. The lawsuit was struck down by a lower court, but the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in March 2019 that the case could proceed.
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Remington offered a $33 million settlement over the lawsuit in July, but the plaintiffs have yet to respond to the offer. The company filed for bankruptcy last year, the second time it did so in two years.
The Washington Examiner contacted Remington and Koskoff but did not immediately receive responses.
