In a news segment discussing the latest lawsuit filed on behalf of the Uvalde school shooting victims, the NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth featured appellate lawyer and Nachawati Law Group Partner Ann Saucer, who helped break down the issue of qualified immunity as it relates to the case.
“It is unusual that the police can be sued for the acts of a criminal,” Ms. Saucer told NBC 5. “However, these facts are particularly alarming.”
The complaint was filed against nearly 100 state police officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response. The lawsuit is the latest of several seeking accountability. More than 370 federal, state and local officers converged on the scene, but they waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the shooter.
Ms. Saucer explained that while qualified immunity would usually protect law enforcement from legal action, this case aims to beat it by showing how the victims’ freedom was constrained due to lockdown protocol.
“Here what we have is the children were effectively jailed,” she told NBC. “They were imprisoned in classrooms 111 and 112 at that elementary school.”