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The family of Luis Garcia, a 16-year-old who was shot outside Denver’s East High School last year and died of his injuries, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Denver Public Schools.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges that East High “subverted and weakened the security and safe environment” of the school when armed police officers were removed, allowing “potential shooters to believe they would be able to execute an attack.” The Denver school board had voted to remove all school resource officers from DPS schools in 2020.
The lawsuit accuses DPS of violating the Claire Davis School Safety Act, a state law named for a Colorado student who died in a school shooting. The law allows school districts to be held liable if they fail to exercise “reasonable care” to protect students and staff from “reasonably foreseeable” acts of violence at school, including murder.
In addition to DPS, the lawsuit names past and present members of the Denver school board as defendants. The board reversed its decision to remove armed police from schools in 2023 after Luis’ death and a shooting inside East High a month later. East High now has two SROs.
A Denver Public Schools spokesperson said the district does not comment on pending litigation. Board President Carrie Olson, who has served on the board since 2017, said the same.
Jose Luis Garcia-Bobadilla, known at school as Luis Garcia, was shot while sitting in his car outside East High on Feb. 13, 2023, after dropping his cousin off at the school. Luis was himself a junior at East High and a talented soccer player who wore #11 on his jersey.
Luis was shot in the head. He died of his injuries more than two weeks later on Feb. 28, 2023.
Using pseudonyms, the 16-page lawsuit also names as defendants a juvenile male and his mother. The lawsuit alleges the juvenile male shot and killed Luis.
The lawsuit says the juvenile male stole a white Kia Sportage, then ran a red light outside East High, drove the Kia “on a direct path straight to Luis,” and opened fire on Luis as he sat in his black Honda Accord on school property.
The lawsuit says the juvenile male’s mother “knew or should have known that her son was in possession of firearms, ammunition, and other illegal weapons” because of his social media and because of “items found in her home by law enforcement.”
The lawsuit says the Denver Police Department investigated Luis’ death but that “no charges have even been filed by the Denver District Attorney’s Office.”
Neither the Denver Police Department nor the Denver District Attorney’s Office responded to requests for comment on the status of the case.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
