The mother of a 10-year-old killed in the Uvalde, TX, school shooting has filed a federal lawsuit against the gun-maker and seller, the city of Uvalde, its school district and several law enforcement officers.
Sandra Torres’ daughter Eliahna was one of 19 students and 2 teachers killed by an 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary in May.
Torres announced the suit in a joint press release with her lawyers from Everytown for Gun Safety’s legal team and Texas-based LM Law Group.
The suit accuses various law enforcement officers of failing “to follow active shooter protocols.” It argues that their decision to treat the active shooter as a “barricaded subject” inside the two classrooms had violated the victims’ constitutional rights, Texas Tribune reports.
Agencies named in the suit include: the Uvalde Police Department, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, the Uvalde County Constables, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Officers and former officers named include: former Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo, Uvalde Police Department’s acting chief Lt. Mariano Pargas, as well as Texas Department of Public Safety’s troopers Juan Maldonado and Crimson Elizondo.
The new lawsuit also alleges that Daniel Defense — the manufacturer of the shooter’s weapon — violated the Federal Trade Commission Act, arguing that the Georgia-based company’s marketing on social media and video games “prime young buyers to purchase AR-15-style rifles as soon as they are legally able.”
