From Texas Public Radio:
Nineteen families who lost their loved ones in the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting announced a settlement Wednesday with the city and county of Uvalde and a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).
The families are suing the 92 individual DPS officers who were there that day when hundreds of officers from local, state, and federal agencies waited for more than an hour to confront the gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers.
Meanwhile, the families reached a settlement with the city and county of Uvalde for $2 million each in insurance payments in a lawsuit that named the then Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief Pete Arredondo — who was supposed to be the incident commander that day — and then-Robb Elementary School principal Mandy Gutierrez.
The settlement includes efforts to rebuild the Uvalde Police Department, establishing May 24 as an annual Day of Remembrance, designing a permanent downtown memorial, and continuing mental health support services for the community.
“Uvalde is a city in need of healing, and this settlement, the terms of which were reached through open, difficult conversations, is an important step forward in that process. The families we represent have every right to be distrustful and angry. I am in awe that, despite that, they agreed to find a way forward so this community can start to heal,” said Erin Rogiers, partner at Guerra LLP, an attorney for the families.
The recent legal developments followed a Department of Justice review that found lives would have been saved if not for unprecedented law enforcement failures.
“Law-enforcement’s inaction that day was a complete and absolute betrayal of these families and the sons, daughters and mothers they lost. TXDPS had the resources, training and firepower to respond appropriately, and they ignored all of it and failed on every level,” Rogiers said. “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.”
DPS did not respond to TPR’s requests for comment.
