A fourth federal complaint has been filed against the U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense following the Sutherland Springs church massacre in November of 2017, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Margarette Vidal was shot twice by the gunman and she is still undergoing treatment for her wounds.
Her attorney, Jamal Alsaffar of Austin, who represents her and her family, says if the Air Force had done its job, the gunman never would have been able to legally acquire the weapon used to kill 26 people and wound his client and 19 others.
"It is extraordinarily important that this gets fixed, and not swept under the rug," Alsaffar told News Radio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board. "That there is actually something they can point to and confidently say 'we are helping prevent this kind of tragedy'."
The gunman had been court martialed for domestic violence while in the United States Air Force and served a year in a military prison before being dishonorably discharged. Under laws passed in 1997, which the Air Force admits it has failed to consistently follow, his name should have been entered into the national data base of people who are not eligible to purchase firearms.
Alsaffar says his goal is to 'fix the broken system' which allowed the shooter to purchase the weapon."This is not a quick fix," he said. "It is going to require a deliberate investigation and getting to the bottom of it, which I think the best way to do that is through a vigorous lawsuit which will uncover all of that information."
An investigation by the DoD Inspector General revealed that not only the Air Force, but all branches of the military, have failed to follow the law, and have allowed hundreds of people who were convicted in military courts to legally buy firearms because their names were not added to the database.
Alsaffar says under federal rules, the Department of Defense has six months to respond to the complaint, after which a lawsuit will be filed in federal court.
Two other families of victims of the shooting have filed similar complaints against the Air Force. Alsaffar says they may eventually be consolidated into a single class action case.
At the same time, another family is suing the San Antonio outdoor store that sold the gun, claiming, despite the man's name not being entered into the federal database, there were 'red flags' in the purchase request, including the fact that the gunman provided an address in Colorado, which should have blocked the sale.