Families of the victims and survivors of the gruesome school shooting in May this year in the US state of Texas are planning to file a whopping USD 27 billion civil right lawsuit against district and state police authorities for negligence in performing their duties, a media report has said.
On May 24, a gunman stormed into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, in the deadliest school shooting in the US in nearly a decade.
Since that massacre, several celebrities from different walks in life have appealed for ensuring gun responsibility in the US.
"On behalf of the family members of the victims and survivors of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, attorney Charles Bonner announced that he is filing a USD 27 billion civil rights lawsuit against the authorities of the state for negligence in their duty," KSAT News, a Texas-based media organisation, reported on Monday.
The law suit in particular is against Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) Police Department, school police chief Pete Arredondo, sheriff's offices, the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Border Patrol, the Uvalde Independent School District school board, the Uvalde City Council and the City of Uvalde, the report said.
The lawsuit also listed gun manufacturer Daniel Defense and Oasis Outback, from whom the gunman Salvador Ramos bought the gun, the report said.
Bonner said all of these defendants, who are governmental defendants, violated the law.
"So we will be suing everyone who is responsible under that law and we will be suing under state laws as well such as just basic negligence," the report quoted Bonner as saying.
"People have a right to life under the 14th Amendment, and what we've seen here is that the law enforcement agencies have shown a deliberate conscious disregard of life," Bonner told KSAT.
Talking about the monetary quantum of the lawsuit, Bonner said, "The reason why it's USD 27 billion is because we have to make it too expensive for them to continue to do nothing."
Bonner says the claims against many of these entities, including individual claims against UCISD school board and Uvalde City Council members, will be made this week.
However, the USD 27 billion dollar lawsuit will not be filed until close to the end of September, the report said.
"Everyone in this world is hurting and bleeding about what is happening here in Uvalde. And it's up to us to make sure it doesn't happen again," Bonner said.
PTI