The US city of Uvalde, Texas, has reached a $2 million settlement (€1.85m) with most of the families of the children killed in a 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school, a lawyer for the families said at a news conference.
"The city of Uvalde has agreed to pay its insurance of $2 million, which is all that there was," Josh Koskoff said in announcing the agreement.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed on 24 May, 2022, when a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms with dozens of students.
A US Justice Department review found that local police had ignored accepted practices by failing to confront the gunman directly, instead waiting outside the classroom for more than an hour despite calls for help from the children.
The response by law enforcement to the situation has come in for harsh criticism and a US Justice Department probe found there were "critical failures" by police.
Officers eventually shot and killed the gunman but waited more than an hour before storming the classroom where he was holed up.
Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the families, announced the settlement with Uvalde at a press conference and said a lawsuit was also being filed against 92 members of the Texas Department of Public Safety and school officials.
"We are suing the state of Texas and we're also suing, down the line, we'll be suing the federal government," he said.
"You had over 150-odd federal officers there, who also were there and stood around until one or more breached the room at 77 minutes," he said.
In addition to the payout to be shared among the families, Mr Koskoff said the city has agreed to enhance training of police officers and provide continued mental health services to survivors and their families.
It will also build a memorial to the victims and establish 24 May, the day of the shooting, as an annual day of remembrance.
"Pursuing further legal action against the City could have plunged Uvalde into bankruptcy, something that none of the families were interested in as they look for the community to heal," attorneys for the families said in a statement, alluding to the relatively small size of the settlement.
The relatives of 17 children who died and two who were wounded were parties to the settlement.
Veronica Luevanos, whose daughter Jailah and nephew Jayce were killed, said the settlement "reflects a first good faith effort by the city of Uvalde to begin rebuilding trust in the systems that failed to protect us."
School shootings have become a regular occurrence in a country where about a third of adults own a firearm and regulations on purchasing even powerful military style rifles are lax.
