Photo: Brandon Bell Archives Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Police officers (background) monitor a memorial for the victims of the Uvalde shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas on the one-year anniversary of the event, May 24, 2023.
Published yesterday at 10:21 p.m. Updated yesterday at 11:18 p.m.
- United States
Families of those killed in the Uvalde, Texas, shooting and surviving victims sued Meta on Friday, along with video game publisher Activision and the manufacturer of the murder weapon, accused of contributed to the killer's act.
On May 24, 2022, a former student of Robb Elementary School, Salvador Ramos (18 years old at the time) , entered the premises armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, before firing.
He caused the death of 19 children as well as of two teachers and injured 17, before being shot dead.
“There is a direct link between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” said lawyer Josh Koskoff, who represents the relatives and survivors who have decided to take legal action, in a press release.
For him, Meta, Activision and Daniel Defense, manufacturer of the weapon, form “a three-headed monster”, which “knowingly exposed” Salvador Ramos “to the weapon, brought him to the see it as a way to solve his problems, and trained him to use it.”
He pointed out the responsibility of Instagram, a subsidiary of Meta, which ” allows” according to him “arms manufacturers to come into contact with consumers”, including those of a young age.
As for Activision, the publisher “should stop training and accustoming children to kill,” insisted the lawyer. The Activision Blizzard studio was bought in the fall of 2023 by Microsoft.
It is notably the publisher of the first-person shooter game Call of Duty, which features a character forced to kill his opponents with firearms or knives to fulfill his mission or defend himself.
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- Uvalde, Texas, two years later
The subpoena against Meta and Activision was filed in a Los Angeles court and the one against Daniel Defense in Uvalde.
“The Uvalde shooting was horrific and tragic and we express our support to the families and individuals who remain affected by this senseless act of violence,” responded an Activision spokesperson to AFP.
She added that “millions of people play video games around the world without subsequently committing horrible acts.”
Requested by AFP, Meta and Daniel Defense n took no immediate action.
The same families and survivors subpoenaed nearly 100 Texas State Police officers on Wednesday, accusing them of having made mistakes during the shooting.
A report from the Department of Justice published in January pointed to a “cascade of failures” in the response of law enforcement.
The victims' relatives also announced Wednesday that it had reached an amicable agreement with the town hall of Uvalde, which provides for the payment of two million dollars in compensation.
Josh Koskoff had made himself known in obtaining, in 2022, from the American arms manufacturer Remington the payment of $73 million in damages to the families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting (2012).