Trial set for Sandy Hook families, gun-maker Remington over school massacre
A Connecticut judge has set a trial date for families of victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre to face the manufacturer whose guns were used in the deadly 2012 shooting.
The trial is set to take place September 2021, nearly a decade after 20-year-old Adam Lanza stormed into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, with a Remington Bushmaster AR-15 and killed 26 people, including 20 students. The tragedy is one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
The relatives of nine victims and one survivor filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington Arms in 2015, accusing the country's oldest gun-maker of illegally marketing the military-style semiautomatic weapon to at-risk young men.
"After nearly five years of legal maneuvering by Remington, we will finally discover what went on behind closed doors that led to the company’s reckless marketing of the Bushmaster AR-15," Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the victims, said in a statement. "The families’ faith in the legal system has never wavered and they look forward to presenting their case to a Connecticut jury."
The 2021 trial date was decided after nearly two hours of talks between attorneys on both sides of the argument. Connecticut's top court ruled that the families could sue Remington back in March.
The North Carolina-based company filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court last month, but the court declined to hear the appeal.
Remington did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
