Uvalde shooting survivors file $27 billion lawsuit

Nearly 30 survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, have filed a $27 billion class action lawsuit, alleging law enforcement officials' miscommunication and inaction failed to prevent the gunman from killing 19 children and two teachers.

The plaintiffs include parents and teachers and school staff members who were at the school May 24 when the second-deadliest school shooting in the US happened. The students and teachers were gunned down in adjoining classrooms just a few days before school was to let out for the summer. At least 17 others were wounded.

A total of 376 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded to the massacre. Officers waited 77 minutes after the shooter entered two adjoining classrooms before storming in and killing the gunman, Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Austin 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.

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 along with several people who are members or former members of the agencies listed as defendants.

In July, a Texas House report found "systemic failures" among the 376 officers who responded to the massacre. And earlier this month, investigators launched an inquiry to determine if a faster law enforcement intervention could have saved more victims.

Numerous Uvalde officials and officers also have resigned or been fired over the past few months, and the school district also suspended its entire police department in October.

In a separate lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon, Uvalde city officials allege that Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell withheld critical information requested by an independent investigator into an ongoing internal affairs investigation of the police response to the shooting. The Texas Tribune reported that the lawsuit seeks all relevant records to the investigation.

Separately, on Tuesday, survivors and families of the victims filed another lawsuit seeking $6 billion in damages from Daniel Defense — the manufacturer of the shooter's weapon —and Uvalde gun store Oasis Outback.

The lawsuit alleges that Daniel Defense 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".

Earlier this year, gun-maker Remington settled a lawsuit for $73 million with the victims' families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, who also had targeted the company's marketing. On Dec 14, 2012, a gunman killed 20 children and six staff members at the school before taking his own life. It was the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in US history.

The lawsuit also alleges that "despite all the indicia that reasonably raised doubts as to (the gunman's) fitness to purchase", Oasis Outback, the Uvalde gun store that sold him guns and ammunition, allowed the purchase to happen, "effectively providing him with an inordinate amount of guns, accessories, and ammunition that should have foreseeably raised significant flags of concern".

The lawsuit alleges the victims and survivors "sustained emotional and psychological damages as a result of Defendants' conduct and omissions" as a result of the shooting.

According to the lawsuit, despite active shooter training, law enforcement "fundamentally strayed from conducting themselves in conformity with what they knew to be the well-established protocols and standards for responding to an active shooter".

Anne Marie Espinoza, a spokesperson for the school district, said in a statement to CNN that it "cannot comment on or provide information about pending litigation. As a district, we focus on supporting our students and their families as we continue to navigate these unprecedented times".

There was no comment from the gun manufacturer or the owner of the firearms store.

Agencies contributed to this story.