Uvalde, Texas, to pay $3.2 million to families of school shooting victims

The city of Uvalde has reached a US$2 million (NZD$3.2m) settlement with families of the victims of a 2022 mass shooting at a public school in the Texas city, one of their lawyers said on Wednesday, ahead of the second anniversary of the massacre.

In one of the deadliest school shootings in US history, 19 children and two teachers were killed on 24 May 2022, when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms with dozens of students.

A US Justice Department review found local police ignored accepted practices by failing to confront the gunman, instead waiting outside the classroom for more than an hour despite calls for help from the children.

"The city of Uvalde has agreed to pay its insurance of $2 million, which is all that there was," Josh Koskoff, who represented families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, said at a briefing to announce the agreement.

He said the settlement involved the families of 17 of the children who were killed and two children who survived.

Families agreed not to sue the city but would file lawsuits against the state of Texas and the federal government over the response of their law enforcement officers, he added.

Families are suing 92 Texas Department of Public Safety officers who were at the incident, Erin Rogiers, partner at Guerra LLP, who is representing families together with Koskoff and Bieder PC, said in a statement. State and federal officers made up the majority of the 376 law enforcement operatives who waited 77 minutes before confronting and killing the 18-year-old gunman, Koskoff said.

Families of victims filed a lawsuit in December 2022 against local and state police, the city, and other school and law enforcement officials seeking at least $27 billion and class-action status for survivors.

It was not immediately clear how the settlement would affect the earlier lawsuit.

- Reuters