The families of the victims and survivors of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, are preparing to file a massive lawsuit against the local and state police, the shop that sold gunman Salvador Ramos his weapon and the manufacturer who made the gun.
Attorney Charles Bonner announced Sunday that he is filing a $27 billion civil rights lawsuit against the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, school police chief Pete Arredondo, sheriff’s offices, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, the Uvalde Independent School District school board, the Uvalde City Council and the City of Uvalde.
Also listed in the lawsuit are gun manufacturer Daniel Defense and Oasis Outback, where Ramos bought the gun.
“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.”
Nineteen students and two teachers were gunned down inside their classrooms on May 24 as hundreds of police officers poured into the school and stood by as Ramos laid waste to the school.
Arredondo, the on-scene commander, was placed on unpaid leave in late June and the school superintendent has recommended he be fired.
“Given the information known about victims who survived through the time of the breach and who later died on the way to the hospital, it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue,” reads a report from the Texas House Investigative Committee released in June.
The 376 responding officers “failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” according to the report.
Bonner said he is preparing the lawsuit to file in September.
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