Uvalde government to pay out $2 million to families of elementary school shooting victims
Today (May 22), the city of Uvalde, Texas reached a settlement with 19 families affected by the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. According to CNN, officials agreed to a $2 million payment, promises to overhaul the police force, and the creation of a permanent memorial for the victims. The news arrived a couple of days before the two-year anniversary of the horrific event.
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Additionally, lawyers for the families filed a new lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety, accusing 92 officers of failing to quickly engage 18-year-old gunman and former student Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 children and two teachers. The new filing specifically named Pete Arredondo, the then-chief of the Uvalde public school police department, and Mandy Gutierrez, the principal at the time. The state police, along with other local and federal officers, were criticized for waiting more than an hour before breaching the classroom where the gunman was located.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUzHNAgD9wI
“Basically, the city has said, 'Our officers did nothing wrong,” said Josh Koskoff, one of the attorneys representing the families, in a press conference. "If their officers did nothing wrong and the rest of the 376 officers did nothing wrong, then what does that say about the threat? Three hundred seventy-six officers doing their job and unable to protect these children for 77 minutes."
The city’s settlement included commitments to improve the hiring and training of police. Investigations by state and federal officials have faulted the responding officers for misclassifying the gunman as a barricaded subject rather than an active shooter, leading to a delayed response. The families’ lawyers argued that the delayed police response increased the likelihood of fatalities among the wounded. Uvalde also promised to designate May 24 as a day of remembrance, provide mental health services for all affected, and install a committee to design the permanent memorial.
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