Mother sues many over Uvalde massacre
Store, gun-maker, officers, agencies among those in lawsuit
In a new federal lawsuit, the mother of Eliahna Torres, one of 19 children killed in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting on May 24, accuses scores of individuals, law enforcement agencies, local governments and the maker of the semi-automatic rifle used in the slayings of failing to protect the victims.
Filed Monday in Del Rio, the suit described the last time Sandra Torres talked to her 10year-old daughter, hours before the gunman entered the Uvalde school and opened fire in classrooms 111 and 112, killing 19 fourth-grade students and 2 teachers.
Eliahna called her mother, a fleet driver, after waking up around 7:20 a.m. Her final youth softball game of the season was that evening, and Eliahna was nervous about making the all-star team.
Before hanging up, Eliahna told her mother that she loved her. She then put on ripped jeans, a white top and black Vans sneakers. Her grandmother took her to school for her third-to-last-day as a fourth grader in classroom 111. It was awards day.
Eliahna attended the school awards ceremony in the morning, posing for a photo in front of pink balloons with some of her best friends.
The girl returned to class later that morning.
“Eliahna did not make it out of classroom 111,” the lawsuit says. “She was killed. Her family’s world was destroyed.”
Sandra Torres brought the suit, along with Eliahna’s older brother, Eli Jr., and older sister, Justice.
They are suing gun-maker Daniel Defense LLC of Georgia, the local Oasis Outback gun store where the shooter picked up his Ar-15style rifle, the Uvalde school district, dozens of officers who converged on the school, the city of Uvalde, Uvalde County and the local fire marshal.
The 77-page lawsuit accuses many of the
defendants of contributing to wrongful death, negligence and violating the constitutional rights of Eliahna and other victims at Robb Elementary.
“Sometimes the only way you get justice is by filing a lawsuit,” said Blas Delgado of San Antonio, the lead lawyer for the Torres family. “There have been a lot of questions throughout the investigation, and we hope this also helps answer some of them.”
Daniel Defense accused
The suit alleges that Daniel Defense “markets its products to adolescent and young men using a range of channels, including social media content, product placements, and print advertising.
“For example, Daniel Defense promotes its products heavily on Instagram, a platform with a young user base,” the lawsuit states.
“Daniel Defense also places its products in video games, and then heavily promotes the video game tie-ins in the company’s social media accounts,” the suit said.
The gun manufacturer did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Salvador Ramos of Uvalde bought a DDM4 V7 rifle on Daniel Defense’s website for $2,054.28 on May 16, his 18th birthday.
On another website, he paid $1,761.50 for 1,740 rounds of ammunition for the rifle.
Oasis Outback’s sales
The next day, Ramos went to Oasis Outback and bought a Smith & Wesson M&P15 assault rifle for $1,081.42, the lawsuit said.
The day after that, the teenager went back to Oasis Outback to buy an additional 375 rounds of AR-15 ammunition.
Ramos returned to Oasis Outback again two days later, on May 20, to pick up his Daniel Defense rifle and bought accessories for the weapon.
“Oasis Outback had a duty not to sell weapons to the justturned 18-year-old shooter, who it knew or reasonably should have known was likely to harm himself or others,” the suit said.
“The shooter was described by patrons of the store as having a nervous disposition and behaving suspiciously.”
“The shooter had purchased two extraordinarily lethal assault weapons and enough ammunition to fight off a small army, as well as a holographic sight and Hellfire Gen 2 trigger system, spending thousands of dollars within days of his 18th birthday,” it stated.
The owner of Oasis Outback declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Officers also sued
The complaint names as defendants several officers from the school district, city police officers, Uvalde County sheriff’s deputies and constables, the Texas Department of Public Safety and a Texas Ranger — participants in a botched law enforcement response to the mass shooting.
Officers waited more than 70 minutes to confront and kill the gunman,
Officers on the scene “had a duty of care to Eliahna, which they breached by delaying their entry to the classroom for well over an hour, thus denying her access to emergency medical and rescue services,” the lawsuit said.
The suit includes an additional 123 defendants identified only as “Doe.” Most are officers who responded to the mass shooting.