As the city of Newtown, Conn. attempts to return to normalcy in the wake the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary three weeks ago, one local lawyer is trying to bring a $100 million class action lawsuit against the state of Connecticut.
Irving Pinsky, the New Haven, Conn. based attorney behind the lawsuit, filed a claim against state of Connecticut's Board of Education, Department of Education and Education Commissioner, recently withdrew the lawsuit, and says he is currently still investigating evidence for a future claim and seeking to sue to state to prevent future school shootings.
Appearing on CNN, Pinsky said his job is "to stop this happening again."
"It hurts me, but I know it's coming," Pinsky said, referring to the likelihood of a similar attack on a school in the future.
The morning of Dec. 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza reportedly shot his mother Nancy four times as she lay in bed, packed at least three of her guns, and then drove her car to the Connecticut K-4 elementary school, opening fire in two classrooms around 9:30 a.m., fatally shooting 20 children and six adults, police said. Police are still searching for a motive; witnesses said the shooter didn't utter a word. The attack was the second-deadliest shooting ever by a single gunman in U.S. history.
Hired by the family of an unidentified six-year-old girl who survived Lanza's rampage, Pinsky said the horrific event was foreseeable and officials failed to prevent it.
"It had to be assumed that this was going to happen somewhere, sometime," Pinsky said.
As reporters reminded Pinsky that Sandy Hook Principal Dawn Hochsprung had increased security recently, which appears to be the reason why Lanza had to force his way into the school by shooting his way through the main doors, Pinksy claimed the windows in the entrance were supposed to be bullet-proof glass.
Pinsky had filed the lawsuit last week seeking permission to sue the State of Connecticut Board of Education, Department of Education and Education Commissioner, claiming lapses in those groups allowed the attack to occur.
Pinsky dropped his claim on Monday, but said on CNN he has a year to re-file it. He also said that he is seeking to go after more than just the state of Connecticut without elaborating.
The survivor, referred to as Jill Doe, "has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined," the claim said.
According to Pinsky, backlash played a role in withdrawing his claim; the lawyer said he had received death threats after filing the claim.
When asked why he wasn't going after the NRA as well, Pinsky replied, "When you say something about the NRA you get double bonus death threats."
According to police, the three guns used in the shooting were legally purchased and registered to his mother. Lanza reportedly primarily used a military-style Bushmaster .223 assault rifle during the shootings.
There were 15 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2012 alone, according to the Huffington Post.
Adam Lanza's DNA is currently being studied by geneticists, a spokeswoman for the University of Connecticut Health Center said last week, according to CNN. State medical examiner's office spokeswoman Carolyn Pennington said there is no specific genetic marker the team is looking for, and lab results and a complete analysis of the DNA "are not expected for several weeks ... probably the end of January."
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