Sandy Hook lawsuit seeks $100 million for girl survivor, 6
A man lays flowers at a memorial on December 24, 2012 for those killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
A Connecticut lawyer is seeking permission to launch a $100-million lawsuit on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who survived the Sandy Hook shooting.
The state is immune from such lawsuits unless lawyers receive permission, Reuters reported.
Attorney Irv Pinsky filed his claim Thursday with state Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr.
Reuters said the girl’s parents approached him within a week of the killings.
The survivor is identified only as “Jill Doe” in the legal action. She heard “cursing, screaming and shooting” when Adam Lanza blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed many of her classmates and teachers.
Twenty-eight people died – including the gunman and 20 young students – on December 14, 2012.
“As a consequence, the … child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined,” the claim said, according to Reuters.
When the school’s principal and staff tried to stop Lanza, they turned on the school’s intercom system to warn teachers of the danger.
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Pinsky said the state must be held accountable, The Hartford Courant reported.
He suggests the shootings were “foreseeable,” according to the Courant, and that the state did nothing to ensure school safety.
“Usually, a fellow like Adam Lanza would have been known as a potential problem to the police,” Pinsky told the newspaper.
“This way the state of Connecticut will get the notice and they will have the attorney general’s office and their investigators see what happened and why the school was not protected.”
While the names of those who died have become widely publicized through funerals and memorial services, there is little known about any survivors.
The story of a 6-year-old girl who played dead made international headlines during the Newtown aftermath, but it’s unclear if Pinsky’s lawsuit refers to the same child.
More from GlobalPost: Girl, 6, was sole survivor of Grade 1 class at Sandy Hook