UVALDE, Texas — San Antonio attorney Shawn Brown on Wednesday filed the first federal lawsuit pertaining to the school shooting that killed 21 people in Uvalde earlier this year.
Brown is representing the families of three students who attended Robb Elementary School on the day of the shooting and survived. The families are suing the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, the city of Uvalde, former school district police chief Pete Arredondo, the gun maker and several other defendants.
The lawsuit alleges: "Due to the conduct of the school and police, and the deliberate choices of the gun makers and sellers to directly market their lethal weapons to young untrained civilians, the shooter bought and assembled a military grade assault weapon with 30-round magazines days after his 18th birthday and entered the Uvalde elementary school unabated, wearing tactical gear. The shooter was left with free range to shoot, terrorize, and kill children and teachers for over an hour."
The lawsuit also asserts that Robb Elementary was under-prepared even after receiving funds to improve school safety following the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School in southeast Texas. The lawsuit also said the district was aware the shooter was on campus but failed to active a campus-wide safety alert, which left the news to be shared "inconsistently by word of mouth."
"The school district’s intercom system was available but not used Principal Mandy Gutierrez. The shooter was free to shoot children and teachers for more than an hour and with school and local police just feet away," the lawsuit states.
According to the lawsuit, there were no officers specifically assigned to Robb Elementary, including on the morning of May 24. Officers would regularly visit the elementary school, but would be on campus for no more than 45 minutes.
The lawsuit also demonstrates that Daniel Defense, which manufactured the weapon used in the attack, advertises its products using a picture of a young child holding a rifle. The caption states: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
The lawsuit claims that the gun maker admitted that 90 percent of its purchasers aren't military-trained and do not know how to responsibly and competently use their guns. The shooter used an AR-style gun in the deadly shooting.
You can read the full lawsuit here.