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(Trends Wide) — The family of Eliahna Torres, who was killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, filed a lawsuit Monday against nearly two dozen people and entities, including the gun manufacturer and the store that provided the rifle used in the shooting. May 24, 2022 attack and law enforcement officials who responded to the crime scene, according to court documents.
Eliahna was a 10-year-old fourth-grader who, along with 18 other students and two teachers, died in a classroom just days before school was due to end for summer vacation. At least 17 other people were injured.
The agents who were part of the operation waited 77 minutes after the attacker entered two adjoining classrooms before breaking in and killing the attacker, an 18-year-old resident of Uvalde. Eliahna died in her classroom, the lawsuit says.
“Eliahna loved her family and knew how much we loved her,” Eliahna’s mother, Sandra Torres, said in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “I miss her every moment of every day. I have filed this lawsuit to seek liability. No parent should go through what I’ve been through.”
The 76-page federal lawsuit, filed by Everytown Law and a Texas law firm on behalf of Sandra Torres and Eliahna’s siblings, alleges that the “mass shooting was made possible by the unlawful, reckless, and negligent actions” of the manufacturer of Daniel Defense weapons.
Investigators have said the Uvalde shooter used an AR-15-style rifle made by Daniel Defense.
“Daniel Defense markets its AR-15 style rifles to young male consumers through the use of militaristic imagery and video game references, through marketing on various social media platforms, and by suggesting that its rifles may be used by civilians for offensive and combat purposes. operations against non-combatants,” the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit also claims that Daniel Defense’s marketing tactics are unfair and violate the Federal Trade Commission Act.
Trends Wide has reached out to all of the defendants listed in the lawsuit for comment.
The lawsuit also charges Oasis Outback, a gun store that delivered the shooter’s Daniel Defense rifle and sold him another gun and ammunition, of negligent transfer of firearms.
The Uvalde shooter “had picked up or purchased more than $3,000 worth of weapons and ammunition, including two AR-style rifles” at Oasis Outback and the store “had a duty not to sell weapons to the shooter, who had recently turned 18, who knew or reasonably should have known that he would likely harm himself or others,” the lawsuit argues, citing witnesses in the Robb Elementary School Commission of Inquiry Report who allege the shooter was nervous and behaving in a suspicious manner. in the shop.
Authorities said the gunman bought the guns legally on May 17 and May 20 after his 18th birthday, which happened on May 16. (Page 35 of the report).
Reached the store by phone Monday, a representative said he had no comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also describes a failed police response by school district, city, county and state officials. It alleges illegal seizure and lack of due process by the defendant law enforcement officers.
The delay in law enforcement entering classrooms to confront the killer trapped the victims inside, the lawsuit alleges.
“By using force to inadvertently confine Eliahna, and other students and teachers, within rooms 111 and 112… Law Enforcement Individual Defendants unlawfully abducted Eliahna, in violation of clearly stated rights guaranteed to her by the Amendments Fourth and Fourteenth”, alleges the civil complaint.
“Eliahna was deprived of access to rescue and emergency medical services and the comfort of her family, who were just outside the perimeter of law enforcement, as she lay dying,” the lawsuit alleges.
A total of 376 law enforcement officers from various agencies responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School, the second deadliest shooting at a K-12 school in the US.
The Torres family is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and has requested a jury trial.
The civil complaint is at least the second in the massacre alleging negligence by multiple parties, including the gun manufacturer and seller.
