A collection of families of victims and survivors of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas are filing a class-action lawsuit seeking $27 billion in damages that will target multiple law enforcement agencies on the federal, state and local levels, reports KSAT in San Antonio. The suit alleges the agencies violated the victims' rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"What we intend to do (is) to help serve this community, and that is to file a $27 billion civil rights lawsuit under our United States Constitution, one-of-a-kind in the whole world," said Charles Bonner, a Bay Area civil rights attorney representing the families, told KSAT. Bonner and his associate have been meeting with families at Pastor Daniel Myers' church, Tabernacle of Worship, in Uvalde during the weeks leading up to this week's announcement.  

Pastor Myers told KSAT that the lawsuit is a key step towards finally holding law enforcement accountable for their botched response to the shooting, which left students and teachers alone with the gunman for nearly 80 minutes while hundreds of officers from several different law enforcement agencies waited outside Robb Elementary School. 

"Up to right now, there's been no accountability, there's no justice for those 19 children and the two teachers," Myers said. The lawsuit will also go after Daniel Defense, the gun manufacturer, and Oasis Outback, where the store where the gunman bought the weapon used to carry out the massacre.  

Bonner intends to file the lawsuit next month, he said, after the Department of Justice wraps its investigation into the shooting. Bonner also announced that his firm is working with the gun safety organization Everytown For Gun Safety and several other firms to represent the Uvalde families in the case, according to KSAT.