Uvalde families reach $2M settlement with city two years after massacre - and sue nearly 100 cops who 'cowered in fear while kids bled to death'

On the eve of the second anniversary of the Uvalde elementary school massacre, 19 victims' families reached a $2 million settlement with the city and announced they are suing nearly 100 'cowardly' state troopers.

Javier Cazarez, whose daughter Jackie was among the 19 children and two teachers who were slaughtered inside classrooms 111 and 112 said: 'No amount of money is worth the lives of our children.

'It's been an unbearable two years. We all know who took our children's lives, but there was a obvious systemic failure out there on May 24. The whole world saw that.' 

Speaking in Uvalde on Wednesday, a lawyer for the families, Josh Koskoff, explained the settlement with the City of Uvalde was a good faith effort, but headed off a lawsuit against the city government.

Around 26 officers from the City of Uvalde responded to Robb Elementary School on the day of the shooting. 

An army of almost 400 cops from local, state and federal agencies were at the school within minutes of first shots fired, and yet waited 77 minutes to take down the shooter

They were among the nearly 400 officers from local, state and federal agencies who rushed to the crime scene.

Three minutes after the shooting began, 11 officers were inside the school, a Department of Justice review found.

Yet inexplicably, officers waited for 77 minutes after the shooting started to take down the lone gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. 

'The most significant failure was that responding officers should have immediately recognized the incident as an active shooter situation, using the resources and equipment that were sufficient to push forward immediately,' the federal report stated.

School district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who has been identified as the incident commander, said he waited to go into the classroom, telling officers who did want to storm the gunman to stand down because he believed the gunman was barricaded with children who were still alive.

However, Arredondo's decision contradicts law enforcement training, which states police must take action, putting their own lives in danger, if shots have already been fired.

Families of the Uvalde victims announced they are suing all 92 Texas DPS officers who were part of the botched respond to the school shooting at their kids' school. The chart above was part of the DOJ report on the school shooting, showing how many officers responded to the massacre

Over 90 Texas Department of Public Safety officer responded to the shooting in Uvalde and went against their training, which tells them to stop the shooter before all else

Uvalde school police chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo told investigators he was more concerned about saving students in other classrooms than trying to stop a gunman who had already shot children and teachers

Surveillance videos from the school hallway have shown police officers running away from the classroom they tried to engage the gunman, who had an AR-15 rifle, and he shot at them. 

But the narrative told by officers is in direct conflict with survivors, some of whom called 911 while trapped in the classroom.

Those children told 911 operators that people were shot, but still alive and pleaded for ambulances to be sent to them.  

Both state and federal investigations have found that some victims might have been saved if they had received medical attention sooner. 

'We've been let down so many times. The time has come to do the right thing,' Cazarez added at the press conference on Wednesday, while surrounded by other grieving families of victims.

A separate $2 million settlement with Uvalde County is still being worked out, Koskoff told reporters.

The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed it was investigating an incident after a video posted on Twitter showed a DPS trooper shoving a Uvalde mother who's child was a victim in the Robb Elementary mass shooting

Harrowing police body worn footage shows distraught Uvalde students with blood-soaked hair and clothes fleeing Robb Elementary on school bus as one girl tearfully tells trooper how she tried not to cry while calling 911 to report mass shooting

'Yes, we are suing the state of Texas,' the lawyer added. 

Koskoff also announced a separate lawsuit against the federal government, who had the most cops in attendance, would be filed in the future.