AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The families of 19 of the victims in the Uvalde elementary school shooting in Texas have scheduled a news conference Wednesday ahead of the upcoming second anniversary of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
The attack at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers when the teenage gunman burst into their classroom and began shooting.
One of the attorneys representing the Uvalde families, Josh Koskoff, of Connecticut, helped families of the victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting win a $1.4 billion defamation judgment against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and reach a $73 million settlement with gunmaker Remington, the company that made the rifle used at Sandy Hook.
Lawsuits have already been filed over the Uvalde shooting. Several families of Uvalde victims did not respond to requests for comment.
A December 2022 lawsuit against local and state police, the city, and other school and law enforcement, seeks at least $27 billion and class-action status for survivors. And at least two lawsuits have been filed against Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, which made the AR-style rifle used by the gunman.
The police response to the mass shooting has been criticized and scrutinized by state and federal authorities.
More than 370 local, state and federal officers responded to the scene but waited for more than 70 minutes before confronting the shooter. Terrified students inside the classroom called 911 as agonized parents begged officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway, to go in.
A tactical team of officers eventually went into the classroom and killed the shooter.
A 600-page Justice Department report in January catalogued “cascading failures” in training, communication, leadership and technology problems that day.
Another report commissioned by the city also noted rippling missteps by law enforcement but defended the actions of local police, which sparked anger from victims’ families.
A criminal investigation into the police response by Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell’s office remains ongoing. A grand jury was summoned this year, and some law enforcement officials have already been called to testify.
