(CNN) — A Connecticut lawyer is requesting permission to sue the state over the Sandy Hook school shooting, saying his 6-year-old client was left with emotional and psychological trauma because authorities failed to make a safe setting at the school.
Attorney Irving Pinsky is seeking $100 million in damages on behalf of his client, a survivor of the shooting identified only as Jill Doe.
The girl was at the elementary school during attack and heard everything including gunfire, screaming, and conversations over the intercom, Pinsky wrote in his Thursday letter to the state claims commissioner.
He said the State Board of Education, Connecticut Department of Education, and State Commissioner of Education failed to protect his client from “foreseeable harm” by not providing a safe setting, failing to determine whether the local Newtown Board of Education had provided a safe setting, and failing to require the school and the local board to make an emergency response plan.
On December 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza burst his way into the school and killed 20 children, all 6 or 7 years old, and six adults. He killed himself as police closed in. Authorities later discovered he killed his mother before going to the school.
It is one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.
Pinsky told the Hartford Courant he filed the notice in order to “freeze” the evidence before insurance adjusters can “shape” it. He also said he hopes to review the evidence and prove the shootings were foreseeable.
“Usually a fellow like Adam Lanza would have been known as a potential problem to the police,” Pinsky told the newspaper.
Attempts to reach state officials Saturday were not immediately successful.
CNN’s Chris Boyette contributed to this report.
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