Federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Robb Elementary survivors

UVALDE, Texas — San Antonio Attorney Shawn Brown filed the first federal lawsuit Wednesday related to the school shooting that killed 21 people in Uvalde earlier this year.

Brown is representing the families of three students who were attending Robb Elementary School on the day of the shooting and who survived. The families are suing the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, the City of Uvalde, former school district police chief Pete Arredondo, the gun manufacturer and several other defendants.

The lawsuit alleges: “Because of the behavior of the school and the police, and the conscious decision of the arms manufacturers and sellers to market their deadly weapons directly to young, untrained civilians, the shooter bought and built a military assault weapon with 30-round magazines 18 days after him. birthday and entered Uvalde Primary School undiminished in tactical gear. The gunman was given a free hand to shoot, terrorize and kill children and teachers for over an hour.”

The lawsuit also alleges that Robb Elementary was inadequately prepared after the fatal shooting at Santa Fe High School in southeast Texas, even after receiving funding to improve school safety. The lawsuit also said the district knew the shooter was on campus but did not activate a campus-wide security alert, requiring the message to be “inconsistently passed by word of mouth.”

“The school district’s intercom system was available but not used by principal Mandy Gutierrez. The gunman was able to shoot at children and teachers for more than an hour, and the school and local police were just meters away,” the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, there were no officers assigned specifically to Robb Elementary, including on the morning of May 24. Officials regularly visited the elementary school but did not stay on campus for more than 45 minutes.

The lawsuit also shows that Daniel Defense, manufacturer of the weapon used in the attack, advertises its products with an image of a young child holding a rifle. The caption reads, “Raise a child in the way it should go, and when it grows old it will not stray.”

The lawsuit alleges the gunmaker has admitted that 90 percent of its buyers are not military trained and do not know how to use their guns responsibly and competently. The shooter used an AR-style weapon in the fatal shootout.

You can read the full lawsuit here.