Dec 3, 2022 - Politics & Policy

Uvalde survivors file $27 billion class action lawsuit

Sareen Habeshian

Crosses set up on Nov. 8, 2022, to honor those who lost their lives during the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Photo: Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images

Victims of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 21 people dead last spring filed a $27 billion class action lawsuit this week, per court documents.

Driving the news: The suit, filed in federal court in Austin on Tuesday, accuses officials of failing to follow active shooter protocol by waiting more than an hour to confront the attacker.

The lawsuit names the city, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, the school district’s police department, the Uvalde Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety and a number of members or former members of those agencies.

Details: Those who filed the lawsuit include students, parents, teachers and school staff who were at the scene of the mass shooting on May 24, when an 18-year-old gunman began firing into classrooms at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 children and two adults.

The suit seeks damages for survivors who have sustained "emotional or psychological damages" and will now "be forced to endure the indelible and forever-lasting trauma that Defendants immeasurably caused and amplified ... in failing to undertake prescribed course of action."

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Uvalde survivors file $27 billion class action lawsuit

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