Uvalde City Council unanimously approves settlement with mass shooting victim families
April 23 (UPI) -- The Uvalde City Council Tuesday evening, unanimously approved a settlement with families of Robb Elementary School mass shooting victims.
Josh Koskoff, one of the lawyers representing families of the victims, confirmed the settlement but did not detail the terms.
He told ABC News that in addition to a monetary settlement, the families of the two teachers and 19 students killed in the shooting wanted the city to maintain the cemetery where many of the mass shooting victims are buried.
The settlement also commits the city to support the Uvalde Police Department's Guardian initiative that includes enhanced emergency training and evaluation for officers.
Mayor Hector Luevano also said during the Tuesday night city council meeting that the city of Uvalde will work with victim families on a permanent memorial.
"Nothing can ever make up the losses and harms these families endured on May 24, 2022, but today's agreement marks an important step forward in advancing community healing, ensuring our city forever honors the lives we tragically lost, and supporting all surviving victims in the 2022 Robb Elementary shooting," Luevano said.
The city council approval came 11 months after Koskoff announced in May 2024 that the city agreed to pay $2 million and create a permanent memorial.
That suit isn't the only one filed against Uvalde over the Robb Elementary shooting.
Another one accuses the Texas Department of Public Safety and 92 officers of failing to engage the gunmen for 77 minutes after arriving at the school.
"For 77 minutes, 26 members of the Uvalde Police Department failed to confront an 18-year-old kid armed with an AR-15, and no disciplinary action has ever been taken -- no firings, no demotions, no transparency -- and the families remain eager for that to change," Koskoff said in a May 2024 statement about police reaction.
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