The city of Uvalde, Texas, has reached a settlement agreement with most of the 19 families of the 24 May 2022 Robb elementary school shooting, lawyers representing the families have said.
Per the settlement, Uvalde will pay $2m to the families, overhaul the city’s police force, and create a permanent memorial for the victims. Seventeen families of the 19 children who were killed and two families of the two teachers who were killed in the shooting were represented in the settlement. The $2m will be paid from the city’s insurance coverage.
Lawyers for the families also said they have filed an additional lawsuit against the Texas department of public safety over failures for the agency to rapidly engage the gunman. Police waited for 77 minutes before stopping the shooter.
The former Uvalde school district police chief Pete Arredondo and the Robb elementary school principal at the time of the shooting, Mandy Gutierrez, were also named in the new lawsuit. Arredondo’s replacement, Joshua Gutierrez, recently announced his resignation but did not provide a reason.
Local district attorney Christina Mitchell began presenting evidence to a grand jury earlier this year to consider criminal charges against police officers for their lack of response. It is unclear when a decision by the grand jury is expected.
“For two long years, we have languished in pain and without any accountability from the law enforcement agencies and officers who allowed our families to be destroyed that day. This settlement reflects a first good faith effort by the city of Uvalde to begin rebuilding trust in the systems that failed to protect us,” Veronica Luevanos, mother of Jailah and aunt to Jayce, children who were killed in the shooting, said in a statement.
“But it wasn’t just Uvalde officers who failed us that day. Nearly 100 officers from the Texas department of public safety have yet to face a shred of accountability for cowering in fear while my daughter and nephew bled to death in their classroom.”
Several other lawsuits related to the shooting, including against state and local police agencies and the gun manufacturer, Daniel Defense, are still active in the courts.
