Sandra Torres.Photo: AP Photo/Eric Gay
Eliahna Torres called her mother early on the morning of May 24, 2022, to let her know she was nervous. That night was her final softball game of the season and the 10-year-old wanted to make the All-Star team.
After she hung up with her mother, Sandra Torres, her grandmother drove her toRobb Elementary Schoolin Uvalde, Texas, where she attended fourth grade.
Eliahna and her classmates were set to graduate in three days.
Around 11:30 a.m. an 18-year-old armed with a DDM4 V7 rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition walked into the school and then entered Eliahna’s classroom and opened fire.
Eliahna and 18 other children died in the mass shooting along with two teachers. Seventeen more children were injured.
The complaint accuses police, police officers, the city, the school district, Daniel Defense — the maker of the gun the shooter used — and the gun shop Oasis Outback of negligence.
Sandra Torres said she wants accountability.
“No parent should ever go through what I have,” she said in a statement accompanying her lawsuit.
MARK FELIX/AFP /AFP via Getty
Uvalde families grieve for loved ones.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
When the shooter arrived in the classroom, the complaint states, he “dropped to his knees and told the children it was ‘time to die.'”
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In addition, the lawsuit targets the gun shop, Oasis Outback, that delivered and sold the weapons and ammunition to the gunman.
“One customer who saw [the shooter] at the store remarked that [he] looked like a school shooter,” the suit states. “The owner of Oasis Outback questioned this quiet loner, dressed in all black, on how he could afford the guns and ammunition he was purchasing. But knowing there were these reasons to be concerned, including that [the shooter] was in a big hurry to acquire thousands of dollars of deadly weaponry within days of turning 18, Oasis Outback nevertheless sold and transferred to him enough guns, accessories, and ammunition to fight off a small army – or, as it tragically turned out, slaughter 19 children and two children.”
Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law, said the shooting could have been prevented.
“The massacre that killed Eliahna Torres and 20 others that day wasn’t just an act of one violent, troubled young man armed with an assault rifle,” he said. “There are several actors responsible for putting the gun in his possession and failing to protect the children he attacked.”
The city of Uvalde tells PEOPLE, “The City has not been served and does not comment on pending litigation.”
Oasis Outback and Daniel Defense did not return a call for comment.
source: people.com
