The families of victims of the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school earlier this year are planning to file a $27 billion lawsuit against the school district police force for its response to the attack.
The lawsuit, which is set to be filed in September, will argue the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District fell short in its response to the Robb Elementary School shooting. A notice of claim, which attorney Charles Bonner told ABC News has been served to the district, cites a House report that determined the police department “failed to exercise command and control of law enforcement.”
The $27 billion sum will go toward compensating the families of the victims and funding mental health resources, according to Bonner.
TERMINATION HEARING FOR UVALDE SCHOOLS POLICE CHIEF PETE ARREDONDO DELAYED AGAIN
“People have a right to life under the 14th Amendment, and what we’ve seen here is that the law enforcement agencies have shown a deliberate conscious disregard of the life,” Bonner told KSAT. “Everyone in this world are hurting and bleeding about what is happening here in Uvalde. And it’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The suit will name several defendants, including the UCISD police department, school police chief Pete Arredondo, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, and the gun retailer where the gunman purchased his weapon, among others.
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The notice comes three months after the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24 that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Law enforcement, particularly Arredondo, has faced intense criticism over the question of why it took more than 70 minutes to confront and kill the 18-year-old gunman.
State and federal agencies have opened investigations into the shooting, scrutinizing the timeline of the law enforcement response.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District did not respond to a request for comment by the Washington Examiner.
