Uvalde Police Chief Resigns As City Settles With Parents Of Shooting Victims

Parents of the victims of the May 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, saw sweeping wins this week in their fight for accountability from the city and law enforcement departments.

On Wednesday, just as the city settled with the families of 19 victims for $2 million over its failed response to the May 24, 2022, massacre, the Uvalde school district police chief resigned after one year in the position. Also on Wednesday, the families of 17 children who were killed and two who were injured filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Safety and the Uvalde school district.

Josh Koskoff, an attorney representing the families, said Wednesday in a news conference, “These were the last lines of defense for these children. But they were failed long before the shooting. They’re failed. We’re failing children.”

The lawsuit, which seeks $500 million in damages, names 92 Texas DPS troopers, the Uvalde school district and Pete Arredondo, who was chief of police for the school district when a lone gunman killed 19 fourth-graders and two teachers inside the school. Mandy Gutierrez, who was principal of the school at the time is also named in the suit.

According to the lawsuit, Texas state troopers were given active-shooter response training, which says that first responders’ main priority is to “stop the killing, then stop the dying and then evacuate the injured.”

Veronica Luevanos, whose daughter Jailah and nephew Jayce were killed in the mass shooting, said in a statement that the $2 million settlement shows a “good faith effort” by the city of Uvalde.

“But it wasn’t just Uvalde officers who failed us that day,” Luevanos said. “Nearly 100 officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety have yet to face a