MAY 25, 2024:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Families in Uvalde took more legal action Friday (May 24, 2024) on the second anniversary of the Robb Elementary School attack, suing Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, and the maker of the video game Call of Duty over claims the companies bear responsibility for products used by the teenage gunman.
They also filed another lawsuit against Daniel Defense, which manufactured the AR-style rifle used in the May 24, 2022, shooting — and has already been sued.
It added to mounting lawsuits over the attack and came as the small Texas city gathered to mourn the anniversary of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The gunman killed 19 students and two teachers. Officers finally confronted and shot him after waiting more than an hour to enter the fourth-grade classroom.
“There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” said Josh Koskoff, an attorney for the families. “This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it.”
Some of the same families on Wednesday filed a $500 million lawsuit against Texas state police officials and officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response that day. More than 370 federal, state and local officers responded but waited more than an hour to confront the shooter inside the classroom as students and teaches lay dead, dying or wounded.
Friday’s lawsuits are not the first to accuse technology companies of having a role in radicalizing or influencing mass shooters. Families of victims in a May 2022 attack on a Buffalo, New York, supermarket sued social media companies, including Meta and Instagram, over content on their platforms.
The lawsuit against Georgia-based gun-maker Daniel Defense was filed in Texas by the same group of 19 families who sued on Wednesday. The lawsuit against Meta and Activision Blizzard — the maker of Call of Duty — were filed in California with additional families of victims from the attack.
Activision called the Uvalde shooting “horrendous and heartbreaking in every way, and we express our deepest sympathies to the families and communities who remain impacted by this senseless act of violence. Millions of people around the world enjoy video games without turning to horrific acts.”
A video game industry trade group also pushed back on blaming games for violence, arguing research has found no link.
“We are saddened and outraged by senseless acts of violence. At the same time, we discourage baseless accusations linking these tragedies to video gameplay, which detract from efforts to focus on the root issues in question and safeguard against future tragedies,” the Entertainment Software Association said.
The amount of damages sought in the new lawsuits was not immediately clear.
According to the lawsuits, the Uvalde shooter had played versions of Call of Duty since he was 15, including one that allowed him to effectively practice with the version of the rifle he used at the school. The families also accused Instagram of doing little to enforce its rules that ban marketing firearms and harmful content to children.
The Uvalde shooter opened an online account with Daniel Defense before his 18th birthday and purchased the rifle as soon as he could, according to the lawsuit.
“Simultaneously, on Instagram, the shooter was being courted through explicit, aggressive marketing. In addition to hundreds of images depicting and venerating the thrill of combat, Daniel Defense used Instagram to extol the illegal, murderous use of its weapons,” the families’ attorneys said in a statement.
Daniel Defense and Meta each did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.
In a congressional hearing in 2022, Daniel Defense CEO Marty Daniels called the Uvalde shooting and others like it “pure evil” and “deeply disturbing.”
A separate lawsuit filed by different plaintiffs in December 2022 against local and state police, the city, and other school and law enforcement, seeks at least $27 billion and class-action status for survivors. At least two other lawsuits have been filed against Daniel Defense.
In Uvalde, community members planned a vigil to remember those killed. Other events included a bell ringing and butterfly release at a local church.
“As we mark this solemn day, may we pray for those we lost, their loved ones, and all those who were wounded,” President Joe Biden said in a letter to the community.
JANUARY 18, 2024:
Extended version:
MAY 22, 2023:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A criminal investigation in Texas over the hesitant police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting is still ongoing a year after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde. Wednesday (May 24, 2023) marks one year since the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. The continuing investigation underlines the lasting fallout over the shooting and how the days after the attack were marred by authorities giving inaccurate and conflicting accounts about efforts made to stop a teenage gunman. The Uvalde school district permanently closed the Robb Elementary campus and plans for a new school are in the works. Schools in Uvalde will be closed on Wednesday.
OCTOBER 7, 2022:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Uvalde school leaders have pulled its embattled campus police force off the job four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting. The decision Friday (Oct. 7, 2022) follows a wave of new outrage over the hiring of a former Texas state trooper who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response during the May attack that killed 19 children and two teachers. School leaders also put two members of the district police department on administrative leave, one of whom chose to retire. A total of 400 officers responded to the shooting, including five school district police officers. The city’s police, county sheriff’s deputies, state police and U.S. Border Patrol agents were among others who responded.
AUGUST 25, 2022:
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The Uvalde school district’s embattled police chief has been fired following allegations that he made several critical mistakes during a mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead. The district’s board of trustees said Wednesday (Aug. 24, 2022) day that it voted to dismiss Chief Pete Arredondo, who has faced criticism since the May 24, 2022, massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Officers armed with rifles waited in a school hallway for more than an hour while the gunman carried out the shooting. Arredondo has tried to defend his actions, telling a Texas House committee he did not consider himself the incident commander on the scene.
JULY 18, 2022:
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — A damning report and hours of body camera footage laid bare the chaotic response to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school. Hundreds of law enforcement officers massed at the scene but then waited to confront the gunman even after a child trapped with the shooter called 911. The findings of an investigative committee were released Sunday (July 17, 2022). They were the first to criticize both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in the South Texas city for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School. He killed 19 students and two teachers.
JULY 15, 2022:
NEW YORK (AP) — Two news outlets’ decision to release an excruciating 77-minute video this week showing police inaction during the Robb Elementary School mass shooting drew a harsh response from residents of Uvalde, Texas, even though they have sought this type of transparency for weeks. Families of the 19 children and two teachers killed by an 18-year-old gunman on May 24, 2022, said the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV displayed insensitivity by releasing the video to the public before those directly affected had a chance to see it. The community’s response reflects the raw feelings directed toward reporters who came to Uvalde to probe what happened, and the reality that journalism often steps on toes.
MAY 31, 2022:
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman at a Texas elementary school — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — has been placed with the school district’s homegrown police chief. It’s left residents in small city of Uvalde struggling to reconcile what they know of the well-liked local lawman after the director of state police said that Pete Arredondo — as the commander at the scene — made the “wrong decision” last week not to breach a classroom at Robb Elementary School sooner.
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