Families of Uvalde shooting victims sue Texas DPS officers – The 74

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to the 74 newsletter

Relatives of 17 children killed and two children injured in Texas' deadliest school shooting are suing Texas Department of Public Safety officers, who were among hundreds of law enforcement officers who waited 77 minutes to confront the shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, attorneys said last week.

“Nearly 100 Texas Department of Public Safety officers have yet to be indicted for being terrorized while my daughter and nephew bled to death in their classroom,” said Veronica Luevanos, whose daughter Jailah and nephew Jayce were killed. A declaration.

The lawsuit against 92 DPS officers came days before the second anniversary of the shooting in which an 18-year-old used an AR-15 to kill 19 students and two teachers in two nearby classrooms fourth year.

Relatives of most of the killed students and two of them injured also announced last week that they were suing Mandy Gutierrez, who was Robb's director at the time, and Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who was the head of the school district police, for their “inaction” that day.

The families' attorney also announced that the city of Uvalde would pay them $2 million to avoid a trial. Additionally, the city will provide enhanced training for current and future police officers, designate May 24 as an annual day of remembrance, and work with victims' families to design a permanent memorial in the city square, among other things.

A DPS spokesperson declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

At a news conference in Uvalde, the families' attorney, Josh Koskoff, said the state's failure to prevent these deaths began long before the shootings. He said Texas has failed to provide small communities like Uvalde with enough resources to train their officers.

“Do you think the city of Uvalde has enough money, training or resources? Do you think they can hire the best of the best? Koskoff said. “As far as the State of Texas is concerned, it seems their position is: You're on your own.”

Koskoff also suggested that families could also sue state and federal agencies, but did not specify which ones. He also said the families are currently negotiating a settlement with the county, which would also avoid a trial.

Javier Cazares, the father of one of the victims, Jacklyn Cazares, said it had been “an unbearable two years” since the massacre that claimed his daughter.

“There was a clear system failure on May 24. The whole world saw it,” Cazares said. “Now is the time to do the right thing.”

The family's lawsuit will likely have to overcome a legal doctrine called qualified immunity, which protects government officials, including law enforcement officers, from liability in lawsuits. To overcome this immunity, it will be necessary to establish that the agents violated a constitutional right.

“We think that this situation where children, after all, are forced to lock themselves in their classrooms, their freedom is limited,” Koskoff said. “In this situation, we believe qualified immunity is not applicable.”

State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who represents Uvalde in the Legislature, introduced a bill last year to end qualified immunity. Like several other bills introduced in response to the massacre, this bill did not pass.

Koskoff, who also represented the families of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, said city officials also failed to hold their officers accountable, but praised the city for working with families to implement changes to prevent another tragedy like this. the 2022 shoot.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers from numerous local, state and federal agencies were heavily criticized for waiting more than an hour to confront the shooter, which was at odds with training that requires them to confront a shooter if there is reason to believe someone is injured. The U.S. Justice Department's investigation into the massacre concluded that the delay likely caused some deaths and that failures in leadership and training contributed to the ineffective law enforcement response.

Koskoff noted that law enforcement outnumbered the shooter 376 to one.

“On paper, there should have been no dispute. So what happened?” Koskoff said. “Maybe it turns out that if a child has a military weapon, the military weapon – the AR-15 – and you have easy access to it, maybe it's not that easy to arrest a kid like that. Of course, those 376 officers didn't give themselves a chance.”

As part of the settlement with the city of Uvalde that the families' attorneys announced May 22, local officials will implement a new “fitness for duty” standard for Uvalde police officers, which will be developed in coordination with the Department of Justice and will provide enhanced training to current and future employees. police officers.

“For two long years, we languished in pain and without any accountability from the law enforcement and agents who allowed our families to be destroyed that day,” Luevanos said. “This agreement reflects a first good faith effort, particularly by the City of Uvalde, to begin to restore trust in the systems that have failed to protect us. »

In a written statement, city officials called the 2022 shooting “the community's greatest tragedy.”

“We will be forever grateful to the victims' families for working with us over the past year to cultivate a community-wide healing environment that honors the lives and memories of those we tragically lost. lost,” city officials said.

An investigation by a Texas House committee found “systemic failures and extremely poor decision-making” by nearly everyone involved in the response.

That panel's 77-page report found that a total of 376 law enforcement officers descended on the school in an uncoordinated manner, in defiance of their own active shooter training.

The majority of responders were federal and state law enforcement — 149 U.S. Border Patrol and 91 state police — whose responsibilities include responding to “mass attacks in public places.” Other responders included 25 Uvalde police officers, 16 sheriff's deputies and five police officers from the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District as well as neighboring county law enforcement, U.S. marshals and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

The myriad errors made by law enforcement stemmed from a lack of leadership and effective communications, according to the House report. DPS has fired at least two officers who responded to the shooting.

A trove of recorded investigative interviews and body camera footage obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE showed that officers failed to establish a clear command structure and disseminated incorrect information which led them to treat the shooter as a barricaded suspect and not an active threat. — even as children and teachers in classrooms called 911 for help. No officer engaged the shooter for more than an hour, despite training that says they should do so as quickly as possible if someone is injured.

Following heavy criticism of their response, several law enforcement officers resigned or were fired in the months following the shooting. Arredondo, then the school district's police chief, was fired in August 2022.

About 72 percent of state and local officials who arrived at Robb Elementary School before the shooter was killed received some form of active shooter training throughout their law enforcement careers. But of those who received training, most only did it once. After the shooting, Texas required officers to receive 16 hours of active shooter training every two years.

A Uvalde County grand jury is currently considering possible criminal charges against the responding officers. The county attorney declined to comment this week on the status of those proceedings.

DPS opposes the release of documents from its investigation into the shooting. In the aftermath of the massacre, agency leaders carefully crafted a narrative that cast local law enforcement as incompetent.

Koskoff criticized DPS for deflecting blame from state police.

“Like they don’t know how to shoot someone?” he said.

Pooja Salhotra contributed to this story.

This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune on The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, member-supported newsroom that informs and engages Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe to the 74 newsletter