Families of the Uvalde school shooting victims have settled for $2million with the Texas city over the 2022 attack that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The settlement comes nearly two years after the deadly attack at Robb Elementary School. Responding officers infuriated the public after it was revealed that they waited for more than an hour to enter the school and confront the gunman.
"Law enforcement did not treat the incident as an active shooter situation, despite clear knowledge that there was an active shooter inside," the attorneys representing the families said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The shooter was able to continue the killing spree for over an hour while helpless families waited anxiously outside the school."
The settlement requires the city of Uvalde to pay $2m to the families of 17 children who were killed and two children who were wounded in the attack, according to the statement.
While the settlement is relatively low when compared to other settlements related to mass casualty events, the families' attorneys said their clients weren't interested in bankrupting the city, CBS News reports.
"Pursuing further legal action against the City could have plunged Uvalde into bankruptcy, something that none of the families were interested in as they look for the community to heal," the attorneys said.
In addition to the $2m payout, the settlement also requires the Uvalde police officers to attend trainings and for the city to provide mental health services to families of victims, to survivors and to the broader Uvalde community. It will also require the city to create a permanent memorial and to make 24 May — the day the shooting occurred — an annual "Day of Remembrance."
“For two long years, we have languished in pain and without any accountability from the law enforcement agencies and officers who allowed our families to be destroyed that day. This settlement reflects a first good faith effort by the City of Uvalde to begin rebuilding trust in the systems that failed to protect us,” Veronica Luevanos, whose daughter Jailah and nephew Jayce were killed, said.
The group said it also planned to file lawsuits against 92 Texas Department of Public Safety officers and Uvalde’s school district.
“But it wasn’t just Uvalde officers who failed us that day. Nearly 100 officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety have yet to face a shred of accountability for cowering in fear while my daughter and nephew bled to death in their classroom,” Ms Luevanos said.
Erin Rogiers, an attorney representing the families, said in a statement that those who lost loved ones in the shooting had a right to demand justice from all of those involved in the botched response to the attack.
“Law enforcement’s inaction that day was a complete and absolute betrayal of these families and the sons, daughters and mothers they lost,” the attorney said. “TXDPS had the resources, training and firepower to respond appropriately, and they ignored all of it and failed on every level. These families have not only the right but also the responsibility to demand justice, both for their own loss and to prevent other families from suffering the same fate.”
Wednesday's settlement ends one of the numerous ongoing legal actions resulting from the mass shooting.
In November, the family of Eliahna Torres, a 10-year-old girl killed in the mass shooting, sued approximately two dozen people and organizations, including the company that manufactured the rifle used in the attack and the gun store that sold the weapon. Law enforcement officials at the scene were also named in the suit, CNN reports.
In December 2022, the families of the survivors filed a $27bn class action lawsuit in federal court against multiple Texas law enforcement agencies. Neither suit has a trial date at this time.
A report from the Justice Department in January found that the overall police response to the mass shooting was a failure.
"Had the law enforcement agencies followed generally accepted practices ... lives would have been saved and people would have survived, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters after the report released.
