Families of survivors from the Uvalde school shooting have sued shipping companies FedEx and UPS for sending weapon components to the massacre perpetrator, alleging that in doing so they violated state and federal law as well as their own corporate safety standards.
The lawsuit was filed on the two-year anniversary of the shooting, The Texas Tribune reported, and claims the companies are partly responsible for the ensuing trauma and distress the survivors have suffered.
The shooter, 19-year-old Salvador Ramos, was armed with a weapon ordered online and shipped to Oasis Firearms in Uvalde before being picked up by him. He also ordered an enhanced trigger system, which was sent to his house and allowed him to turn a firearm to a fully automatic or semi-automatic weapon.
The filing cited UPS' safety standards, which claim that shipments "must not contain goods which might endanger human or animal life or any means of transportation." In a statement, UPS said "our hearts go out to the Uvalde victims and their families. Shipping firearms and components is highly regulated; UPS complies, and requires its customers to comply, with all applicable federal laws. The lawsuit has no merit and we will defend accordingly."
It also alleges more violations, among them that the shooter was not over 18 when he bought the weapon online and that his house, where the arms were sent, was less than 1,000 feet away from the Robb Elementary School zone.
Survivors' families also filed a suit against Meta, the maker of Call of Duty videogame "Activision" and Daniel Defense, the company that manufactured the AR-15 rifle used by the gunman.
The suit follows other issued by the families of the 19 victims, who in late May said they reached a settlement with the city but at the same time sued over 90 state police officers who were part of the force's botched response to the situation.
The settlement amounts to $2 million and also includes the promise of higher standards and better training for local police.
Close to 400 federal, state and local officers were at some point at the scene, but they waited over an hour to enter the school. The lawsuit alleges state troopers did not follow their training and responsibility to engage with the shooters despite students and teachers did.
"The protocols trap teachers and students inside, leaving them fully reliant on law enforcement to respond quickly and effectively," the families and their attorneys said in a statement. Footage that surfaced in the following months showed police waiting in the hallway while the shooter was inside the classroom.
The images caused generalized uproar as it showed police refusing to engage for about an hour. Ramos was killed 84 minutes after arriving at the school.
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