$27 billion Uvalde class-action lawsuit likely to target law enforcement, gun manufacturer for 'deliberate, conscious disregard' for human life



A class-action lawsuit on behalf of the victims and survivors of the Uvalde school shooting that occurred three months ago will soon be filed, and it is likely to name as defendants several law enforcement agencies and at least two firearms businesses.

Back on May 24, a shooter shut himself inside two adjoining classrooms in Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and terrorized children and teachers for over an hour before law enforcement breached the door and killed him. In all, 19 students and two teachers were murdered in the attack, and several others were wounded.

Last week, Charles Bonner of the Law Offices of Bonner & Bonner — located in the Bay Area — announced that he would soon file a $27 billion lawsuit on behalf of the Uvalde victims. He has been meeting with survivors and family members at a local church to discuss a possible lawsuit which will hold law enforcement accountable for their actions that day.

"Up to right now, there's been no accountability, there's no justice for those 19 children and the two teachers," said Daniel Myers, the pastor of Tabernacle of Worship church where Bonner and the victims have met.

Defendants in the lawsuit will likely include: Uvalde city police, Uvalde police chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, sheriffs, Texas Rangers, Border Patrol, and the Texas Department of Public Safety. The lawsuit will also likely target Daniel Defense, which manufactured the gun used by the shooter, and Oasis Outback, which sold it to him. Members of the Uvalde school board and city council may also be named.

Bonner claims that by their actions — and in many cases, their inactions — these individuals, businesses, and law enforcement agencies violated the victims' constitutional rights.

"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 the life," said Bonner, who is also representing victims of the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

The civil rights lawsuit will be "one-of-a-kind in the whole world," Bonner continued.

The lawsuit is expected to be filed soon.

"Now it's time for all of us to stand up and demand change and protection," a statement on the Bonner & Bonner website says.

Other attorneys from a separate California law firm are preparing to file a federal lawsuit regarding the shooting on behalf of three individual families. Though it will not be a class-action suit, it will likely include many or all of the same defendants as the class-action suit filed by Bonner.

'Systemic failures': New report finds nearly 400 law enforcement officers at Uvalde school shooting, blames all agencies for 'lackadaisical approach'



Nearly 400 law enforcement officers were at the Robb Elementary School during the Uvalde school shooting that resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers, according to a new report.

An investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives released a 77-page report regarding the police response to the Uvalde shooting on Sunday.

The report stated, "There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregious poor decision making."

The report regarding the May 24 massacre found "an overall lackadaisical approach” by federal, state, and local authorities at the deadly crime scene.

The investigators said there were "shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement."

There were 376 law enforcement officers at Robb Elementary School during the shooting – including 149 from the United States Border Patrol, 14 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and 91 from the Texas Department of Public Safety. There were also 25 responders from Uvalde Police Department, 16 from the Uvalde County Sheriff's Office, 16 from the San Antonio Police Department (SWAT), and five officers from the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police.

Despite the massive law enforcement presence, the mass shooter was not neutralized until 77 minutes after the gunman entered Robb Elementary School.

The committee's report noted, "The attacker fired most of his shots and likely murdered most of his innocent victims before any responder set foot in the building. Of the approximately 142 rounds the attacker fired inside the building, it is almost certain that he rapidly fired over 100 of those rounds before any officer entered."

The investigation also found that law enforcement disregarded their own active shooter training protocols.

"They failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety," the report said.

The committee also faulted better-trained law enforcement agencies for not taking leadership away Pete Arredondo – the former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief.

"In this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post," the committee report said. "Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or to offer that specific assistance."

The committee also discovered that school staff broke safeguards, such as leaving doors unlocked and propping them open with wedges or rocks.

(WARNING: Graphic content)

Exclusive Uvalde video shows school shooting, police in hallway after shooter entered classroom www.youtube.com

Uvalde school police chief to resign from city council



Pete Arredondo – the highly criticized Uvalde school police chief – will resign from his city council position, according to a new report.

A few weeks before the mass shooting on May 24 that killed 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary School, Arredondo was elected to the Uvalde city council. He was sworn into the position on May 31. However, Arredondo will reportedly step down from the position in the Texas town.

"After much consideration, I regret to inform those who voted for me that I have decided to step down as a member of the city council for District 3. The mayor, the city council, and the city staff must continue to move forward without distractions. I feel this is the best decision for Uvalde,” Arredondo told Uvalde Leader-News.

“As we continue to grieve over the tragedy that occurred on May 24th, we pray for the families involved and our community," Arredondo told the local newspaper. "Uvalde has a rich history of loving and supporting thy neighbor and we must continue to do so. In speaking with other communities that have had similar tragedies, the guidance has been the same… continue to support the families, continue to support our community, and definitely, to keep our faith."

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said the city has yet to receive a resignation letter from Arredondo, but McLaughlin called it "the right thing to do," Fox News reported.

Following the deadly school shooting, Arredondo had requested an extended leave from the city council. However, city council denied his request during a meeting held on June 21.

The chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department was placed on administrative leave on June 22. The day prior, Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told a state Senate committee that police officers could have ended the deadly school massacre within minutes. However, under Arredondo's command, the mass shooter was not neutralized until 77 minutes after the gunman entered Robb Elementary School.

Arrendondo earns an annual salary of $90,750 as the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department, according to Uvalde Leader-News.

A report from last month stated that a Uvalde police officer passed up an opportunity to open fire on the school shooter. The report also said that law enforcement never tried to open the classroom door where the gunman was.

Uvalde police never tried to open doors to classrooms where shooter was, officer passed up shooting gunman before he entered school: Reports



New reports reveal that a Uvalde police officer passed up an opportunity to open fire on the Texas school shooter and that law enforcement never tried to open the classroom door where the gunman was.

The New York Times reported that a Uvalde police officer could have shot Salvador Ramos before he entered Robb Elementary School.

"At least two law enforcement cars arrived in close succession at the school," according to the New York Times. "One was driven by an officer from the small police force that patrols Uvalde’s schools. Another arrived less than a minute later, at 11:32 a.m., with officers from the Uvalde Police Department."

At the time, the gunman was reportedly outside the school – firing into the building and toward a funeral home. Responding officers believed the shooter was firing at them, according to Chief Deputy Sheriff Ricardo Rios of Zavala County.

The two officers took cover behind a police cruiser.

"They wanted to return fire, he said, but held off," the Times stated, adding that one of the officers was armed with a long gun.

Rios said, "I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you shoot? Why didn’t you engage?’ And that’s when he told me about the background. According to the officers, they didn’t engage back because in the background there was kids playing and they were scared of hitting the kids."

The opportunity to take out the shooter purportedly only had a window of a few seconds.

Rios understood the decision, and added, "The Ranger who took my statement even said: 'It's come to the point where we’re second-guessing ourselves shooting somebody because we’re scared. Every bullet has our names.'"

A report from the San Antonio Express-News claimed that police officers never attempted to open the doors at the Robb Elementary School – where the shooter was.

"Surveillance footage shows that police never tried to open a door to two classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde in the 77 minutes between the time a gunman entered the rooms and massacred 21 people and officers finally breached the door and killed him," the San Antonio Express-News reported, citing a law enforcement source involved in the investigation. "Investigators believe the 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at the school on May 24 could not have locked the door to the connected classrooms from the inside."

That source allegedly said that police may have assumed that the school doors were locked. However, the doors are reportedly only locked or unlocked from the outside.

The report claimed that police officers could have tried to open doors instead of attempting to locate keys to gain entry.

Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo allegedly tried to obtain keys to open the school doors.

The Texas Tribune previously reported, "The extrication tools never materialized, but Arredondo had also asked for keys that could open the door. Eventually, a janitor provided six keys. Arredondo tried each on a door adjacent to the room where the gunman was, but it didn’t open."

The San Antonio Express-News reported, "Regardless, officers had access the entire time to a 'halligan' a crowbar-like tool that could have opened the door to the classrooms even if it was locked, the source said."

The Times added, "Ramos entered Robb Elementary at 11:33 a.m. that day through an exterior door that a teacher had pulled shut but that didn’t lock automatically as it was supposed to, indicating another malfunction in door locks at the school."

The San Antonio Express-News noted, "Police finally breached the door to classroom 111 and killed Ramos at 12:50 p.m. Whether the door was unlocked the entire time remains under investigation."

Ohio's Republican governor will sign a bill allowing school employees to carry guns



Public schools in the state of Ohio will be able to begin arming employees as soon as this upcoming fall under legislation recently passed by the state legislature that will soon be signed by the state’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine.

The Associated Press reported that Ohio Democrats opposed the legislation despite it being optional for schools. Ohio Democrats argued that passing and signing the bill into law sends the wrong message in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas massacre in which a lone gunman killed 19 school children and two teachers.

Despite Democratic opposition, the Republican majority in the state’s legislature insisted that the measure could prevent future tragedies like the one in Uvalde. State lawmakers subsequently fast-tracked the legislation to counter the impact of a court ruling that said, under current state law, armed school workers would need hundreds of hours of training to be permitted to carry a firearm while on the clock.

The Statehouse News Bureau, a regional Ohio-based media outlet, reported that the new legislation reduces the amount of training for school personnel to 24 hours from 700.

Gov. DeWine insisted that the bill will, in fact, protect children by ensuring that the firearm training that school employees will now receive will be specific to respective schools and school systems and will include “significant” scenario-based training.

DeWine said, “Ultimately, each school will make its own decision. So we’re not telling any school district – we have over 600 school districts in the state – the school board of that school will decide whether they want to arm teachers or not.”

He continued, “We will also be giving schools the choice of providing additional training, that we will stake out [and] provide for if they decide that they want more than 24 hours for a teacher.”

Reportedly, major law enforcement groups, gun control advocates, and the state’s teachers’ unions oppose the legislation and requested that DeWine veto it. It is not clear whether they provided alternative policy proposals.

Notably, local police departments and certain school districts within the state expressed support for the legislation.

In the latest version of the legislation, school employees who carry guns will need eight hours of requalification training annually in order to recertify their ability to carry while on school grounds.

DeWine is expected to sign the bill into law later this month. He also recently announced that the state’s construction budget will provide $100 million for school security upgrades and $5 million for security upgrades at colleges across the state.

'I'm going in there!': Uvalde mother handcuffed by cops describes running into school during shooting, says police tried to silence her from telling her story



A Texas mother who defied Uvalde police officers and ran into the school during the mass shooting to save her children has come forward to tell her story despite alleged threats by law enforcement for her not to speak to the media.

On the morning of May 24, Angeli Gomez went to Robb Elementary School to see her kids' graduation ceremonies. At first, Gomez didn't want to take photos with her two sons because she was dusty from working at a farm earlier in the day. She reluctantly took a photo with her two boys and then went back to work.

Shortly after returning to the farm, Gomez received an urgent phone call from her mother informing her that there was a shooting at her sons' school. She got in her car and said she drove 100 mph to the school.

Gomez described the chaotic scene at Robb Elementary School after a shooter went on a deadly rampage.

"Right away as I parked, U.S. Marshals started coming toward my car saying that I wasn't allowed to be parked there," Gomez told CBS News.

"And he said, 'Well, we're gonna have to arrest you because you're being very uncooperative,'" the Uvalde mother explained. "I said, 'Well, you're gonna have to arrest me because I'm going in there. And I'm telling you right now, I don't see none of y'all in there. Y'all are standing with snipers and y'all are far away. If y'all don't go to go in there, I'm going in there.' He immediately put me in cuffs."

Immediately after the handcuffs were removed from Gomez, she sprinted toward the school. She got her one son out of his classroom.

The courageous mother then ran to get her second child, but was stopped by police.

She explained, "So I start yelling and I'm being uncooperative, and I'm like, 'Well, y'all ain't doing s**t! What are y'all doing? Y'all ain't doing s**t!.'"

Gomez said the teacher wouldn't open the door to the classroom where her son was and she was escorted out by police. However, Gomez ran back when she saw that her son's classroom was being evacuated.

"There was not one officer inside the school when I ran to my second son's classroom," Gomez exclaimed.

Gomez said she heard gunshots being fired during the evacuation and that it was still an active shooting situation.

"They could have saved many more lives," Gomez said as she broke into tears. "They could have gone into that classroom – and maybe two or three would have been gone – but they could have saved the whole class. They could have done something."

"If anything, they were being more aggressive on us parents that were willing to go in there," Gomez said of Ulvade police.

She told a police officer, "If anything, I need you to go in there with me to go protect my kids."

Gomez said law enforcement was more concerned with parents than going into the school.

Gomez was reluctant to speak to the media recently because she said that law enforcement threatened her. The Uvalde mother claimed that a police officer called her and told her that her probation – from a decade-old charge – could be violated if she continued to talk to the media. Gomez only gave the interview after a judge informed her that she wouldn't be punished for speaking to the media.

The Uvalde shooting ended with 19 children and two teachers dead.

Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo has been widely criticized for his team not responding to the shooting until over an hour after the carnage began.

Arredondo did not have his police radio with him when he arrived at the school, which may have caused a delay in communicating with police dispatchers, according to the New York Times.

Mom who ran into school during Uvalde, Texas shooting discusses moments inside www.youtube.com

Off-duty Border Patrol agent rushed into Uvalde school with borrowed gun, says police stood outside in 'gear'



Jacob Albarado, the off-duty Border Patrol agent who rushed into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, to save his wife and daughter, joined NBC’s “Today" show on Tuesday to recount his harrowing experience. Albarado told host Savannah Guthrie that he believes police were "doing the best they could given the circumstances," but details he inadvertently revealed during the interview have raised new questions about the Uvalde police response.

Albarado explained that he was getting a haircut when he received a text message from his wife, Trisha, who is a fourth-grade teacher at the elementary school.

“There’s an active shooter. Help. I love you,” the text said, according to Albarado.

Albarado described how he borrowed his barber’s shotgun and rushed to the school to save his wife and 8-year-old daughter, Jayda. As he made his way into the school, he saw police officers in "their gear" gathered outside.

"Did you ever see those officers that were poised outside the door?" asked Guthrie. "Obviously, there's a lot of scrutiny now with [the police] actions and whether they should have gone in," she added.

"At one point, I was there at the door fixing to go in, but once again, I didn't have any of my gear," Albarado answered. "It wouldn't have been a smart move for me. All those guys had their gear and stuff. [...] My wife texted me, called me, that she was okay .... so I went on to find my daughter in her wing."

After finding and getting his daughter out safely, Albarado went on to evacuate the rest of the classrooms in that wing while two officers provided cover, according to the New York Times.


“Even more questions after this morning['s] interview on the Today show with the CBP agent who was off duty and went to rescue his daughter and wife at Robb Elementary. He said he was near the door where [the] gunman was while searching for his daughter. Saw officers with their ‘gear’ on," CNN correspondent Simon Prokupecz said in a tweet.

\u201cEven more questions after this mornings interview on the Today show with the CBP agent who was off duty and went to rescue his daughter and wife at Robb Elementary. He said he was near the door where gunman was while searching for his daughter. Saw officers with their \u201cgear\u201don.\u201d
— Shimon Prokupecz (@Shimon Prokupecz) 1654000667
\u201cThis appears to be early on because he is still searching for his daughter and before the CBP tactical teams arrived.\u201d
— Shimon Prokupecz (@Shimon Prokupecz) 1654000667

Abarado, who is currently "out of work" due to an unrelated surgery he had just two days after the shooting, has started a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help cover his family's expenses. He says his wife will not be teaching this summer "because she is too traumatized from the events that occurred on May 24th" and that his family will need "time and plenty of counseling" but promises to keep "pushing forward one day at a time."

Elitist Obama  romanticizes George Floyd's death for street cred



Former President Barack Obama told his 132 million Twitter followers how they could get involved with reimagining policing. George Floyd's death certainly reimagined policing. You can see the consequences of "Saint George's" reimagined police force in the reluctant and deliberate reaction to the 18-year-old psychopath Salvador Ramos.

This reimagined system of policing kept officers in the parking lot of an elementary school for 40 minutes while second, third, and fourth graders and two teachers were at the mercy of Ramos, who eventually killed 19 kids and two adults.

Those poor children and teachers were alone with a deranged boy for nearly an hour without facing resistance. Thanks to the police being scared to do their jobs in the wake of George Floyd, they stood in the parking lot for close to 40 minutes debating what exactly to do.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock of "Fearless" believed those police officers stood outside that elementary school and rejected men's natural masculine instinct to sacrifice their safety and lives to protect women and children.



"Man's instincts have been reimagined in the last two decades, and the left and feminists have told us that our masculinity is toxic. Police are told by the Democratic Party and radical political activists that George Floyd, Jacob Blake, Eric Garner, and Brianna Taylor's trigger-pulling boyfriend are heroes and law enforcement is the villain. We've incentivized police to stand down, stand back, and give criminals a safe space to work out their frustrations," Jason said.

"Obama's veneration of George Floyd is an outgrowth of a cultural lot sweeping America. We've made heroes of men who contributed nothing to our society and demonize men whose jobs require them to risk everything," Jason added.

Jason lost a close relative to police misconduct and empathizes with George Floyd and his family. But according to Jason, "The last nine minutes of George Floyd's life do not make him a hero."

"Obama is romanticizing George Floyd, and it's not surprising given Obama's resume. He's mixed-race, half black, half white. He grew up in Hawaii and was raised by white people. He attended elite schools, including Harvard. Obama desires street cred, but he knows absolutely nothing about the streets. Other than what he learned from watching his favorite TV show, 'The Wire.' Obama naively thinks George Floyd is 'The Wire' character Bubbles — a well-intentioned gold-hearted dope fiend. The truth about Floyd is more like an older just-released-from-prison version of Marquis Byrd Hilton — the violent enforcer Omar Little framed for murder," said Jason.

"I'm not arguing that Floyd got what he deserved, but no one on the streets cried when Omar lied about Bird in court," he added. Anyone with an ounce of street sense knows that Obama is playing politics.

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