Families of Uvalde victims announce settlement with city nearly two years to the day after Robb Elementary shooting

SAN ANTONIO — 19 families whose loved ones were murdered or injured in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary announced a settlement with the City of Uvalde which includes a number of stipulations and commitments intended to help the families and larger Uvalde community continue to heal from the tragic shooting that took place on May 24, 2022. The City of Uvalde will pay to the families from its insurance coverage a total of $2 million.

Pursuing further legal action against the City could have plunged Uvalde into bankruptcy, something that none of the families were interested in as they look for the community to heal.

This announcement was made just ahead of the second anniversary of the day 21 people were killed at the Uvalde school.

In addition, the families also announced legal action against the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS), via lawsuits against 92 individual officers as required by law, for the shocking and extensive failures of TXDPS that day. 

The lawsuit also names the Uvalde School District and several of its individual employees, including then-Robb Elementary Principal Mandy Gutierrez and then-Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, as defendants.

Joined by attorneys from Connecticut-based firm Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder and San Antonio-based Guerra LLP, the families made their announcement on Wednesday. This lawfirm was involved in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, playing a pivotal part in the $73 million settlement reached with Remington, the maker of the rifle used in that tragedy. 

“For two long years, we have languished in pain and without any accountability from the law enforcement agencies and officers who allowed our families to be destroyed that day. This settlement reflects a first good faith effort by the City of Uvalde to begin rebuilding trust in the systems that failed to protect us,” said Veronica Luevanos, whose daughter Jailah and nephew Jayce were killed. “But it wasn’t just Uvalde officers who failed us that day. Nearly 100 officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety have yet to face a shred of accountability for cowering in fear while my daughter and nephew bled to death in their classroom.”

The settlement includes efforts to rebuild and repair the Uvalde Police Department by implementing a new “fitness for duty” standard for Uvalde police officers, to be developed in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. It also includes a commitment from the Uvalde Police Department to provide enhanced training for current and future officers. There will also be an agreement to coordinate with the families concerning the public safety risk and burden on police due to the prevalence of gun violence.

In addition to the policy changes which are aimed at preventing a repeat of failures by law enforcement, the settlement also includes stipulations to support the Uvalde community long process of healing.

The City of Uvalde has committed to establishing May 24 as an annual Day of Remembrance. The city will create a committee to coordinate with families to design a permanent memorial at the Plaza to be paid for by the city. The City of Uvalde will also continue to support mental health services for the familes, the survivors and anyone in the community that needs it. Work will continue with third party entities to bring new developments for children and families in Uvalde.

“There is no risk more foreseeable to our children than classroom shootings. Until the corporate enablers of mass shootings start prioritizing our children above their profits, and until state and federal governments get serious about prevention, the immense burden of protecting children in schools will continue to fall on local communities like the City of Uvalde. For 77 minutes, 26 members of the Uvalde Police Department failed to confront an 18 year-old kid armed with an AR-15, and no disciplinary action has ever been taken—no firings, no demotions, no transparency—and the families remain eager for that to change. But the healing process must begin, and the commitments made today by the City are a step in that critical process,” said Josh Koskoff, partner at Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder and attorney for the families. “The State of Texas and the school district, on the other hand, seem intent on causing these families even more hardship than the indescribable pain of losing a child. While there is nothing normal about living in a society where kids can easily get access to a military rifle, the reality is that these officers were so terrified that they chose to abandon their burden to the Uvalde community: put themselves between a very dangerous person and a child, and the families must hold them accountable.”

Following the shooting, the families’ grief was made even worse by the City’s restrictions and maintenance issues at gravesites of the victims at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery. This happened even though a lot of money was donated for that purpose. Because of this, the City will now reguarly maintain the graves at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery. They will also create two new positions on the Cemetery Advisory Board to be filled by family members of the Robb Elementary tragedy.

The city will also reimburse the families for the amount they spent repairing and maintaining their family member’s gravesite over the last two years. The city will also provide the families updated accounting regarding the donations received in connection to the tragedy at the school.

“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 and another attorney for the families. “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. 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.”

Previous lawsuits filed in relation to the Uvalde shooting include a $27 billion lawsuit announced in November 2022 by parents and guardians of children who were on campus during the shooting but weren’t in the classrooms when the gunman attacked. 

Those plaintiffs are suing several entities, including Uvalde police, the City of Uvalde and others. 

The city also filed a lawsuit against Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell over failure to release information they said was vital for their internal investigation led by Austin-based detective Jesse Prado; his report ultimately exonerated city personnel who were at the shooting. 

According to the lawsuit filed against 92 individual Texas DPS officers, the officers were trained on Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT), the preeminent active shooter response training in the United States. ALERRT dictates that first responders’ main priority in a situation like Robb Elementary is to, first, stop the killing, then stop the dying, then evacuate the injured. Inherent in these best practices is the prioritization of victims or potential victims over the safety of officers.

Robb Elementary students and teachers were diligently trained to follow their own lockdown protocols during a school shooter event: turn off the lights, lock the door and remain absolutely silent. By design, these protocols trap teachers and students inside, leaving them fully reliant on law enforcement to respond quickly and effectively. The complaint details how the longer law enforcement prolongs a lockdown, the higher the likelihood that students and teachers will be shot, die from their wounds and experience extreme terror and trauma.

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled a 610-page review of the law enforcement response to the shooting at Robb Elementary, confirming that failures at every level–including in leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training–contributed to officers’ inaction for over an hour. The most significant failure that day, according to the DOJ report, was that law enforcement did not treat the incident as an active shooter situation, despite clear knowledge that there was an active shooter inside, and did not use the available resources and equipment to push forward immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat. Instead, the shooter was able to continue the killing spree for over an hour while helpless families waited anxiously outside the school.

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