'Call of Duty' Publisher, Maker of AR-15 Style Rifle and Meta Named in Wrongful Death Lawsuits Filed by Families of Uvalde Victims – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

(CNN) — Three companies face wrongful death lawsuits in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, according to complaints filed in California and Texas.

The lawsuits, which accuse the companies of “grooming” the Robb Elementary School shooter, come after 19 families of students and teachers killed at the school announced Wednesday that they had settled a lawsuit with the city for 2 million dollars.

The companies – Meta, Activision and Daniel Defense – all contributed in one way or another to the behavior of shooter Salvador Ramos, according to the lawsuits.

Ramos downloaded the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” in November 2021, according to the complaint filed in California against the game's publisher, Activision, Meta and others.

The game featured a weapon from Daniel Defense called the DDM4 V7, which served as a “teaser for players eager to try the weapon,” according to the suit.

At the same time, Ramos “was being courted through explicit and aggressive marketing” on Instagram, the suit says. Meta is the parent company of Instagram.

“In addition to hundreds of images depicting and glorifying the thrill of combat, Daniel Defense used Instagram to tout the illegal and deadly use of his weapons,” the suit states. “Within weeks of downloading Modern Warfare, the shooter was browsing assault weapons, acquiring gun accessories popularized by the game, and repeatedly returning to the Daniel Defense website.”

“A few minutes after midnight on May 16, the shooter’s 18th birthday, he purchased a DDM4V7,” the suit states. “Eight days later, the shooter inflicted unspeakable violence on Robb Elementary School, killing 21 people and injuring and traumatizing many more.”

Investigators in the Uvalde shooting found one of Ramos' AR15-style rifles, made by Daniel Defense, at the school, according to Sen. John Whitmire, then a Texas state senator who is now mayor of Houston.

“Defendants bear responsibility for this profound corruption of our children,” says the complaint filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles. “Together with some gun manufacturers, they have cultivated a generation of socially vulnerable young men, insecure about their masculinity and eager to demonstrate strength and assert dominance. »

According to the complaint filed in District Court in Uvalde, Texas, Daniel Defense courts teenagers by exploiting and exploiting “the power of social media and first-person shooter simulations to lure teenagers to its website where it can monitor their online activity, create a profile of their interests and solicit their contact details.

In a statement, Josh Koskoff, a partner at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder and an attorney for the families, said: “There is a direct connection between the behavior of these companies and the Uvalde shooting. Just 23 minutes after midnight on his 18th birthday, the Uvalde shooter purchased an AR-15 made by a company with less than 1 percent market share. For what? Because, long before I was old enough to buy it, it was targeted and cultivated online by Instagram, Activision and Daniel Defense. This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to view it as a tool to solve his problems, and trained him to use it.

An Activision spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Friday: “The Uvalde shooting was horrific and heartbreaking in every way, and we express our deepest condolences to the families and communities who remain affected by this senseless act of violence. Millions of people around the world enjoy video games without engaging in horrible acts.

CNN has contacted Meta and Daniel Defense for comment.

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