Three parents whose children were among those killed in a 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, are suing a conspiracy theorist for defamation.
Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah Pozner, are seeking $1 million in separate lawsuits.
Right-wing radio show host Alex Jones has long claimed on his show and “InfoWars” website that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was “fake” and a “giant hoax.”
“Our clients have been tormented for five years by Mr. Jones’ ghoulish accusations that they are actors who faked their children’s deaths as part of a fraud on the American people. Enough is enough,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
Jesse and Noah were among the 20 first-grade students and six educators gunned down inside the school.
Jones has implied that the scenario was staged by the federal government who hired the actors to undermine the Second Amendment rights of the American people and curb gun ownership.
The lawsuit filed by Heslin cites a November 2016 broadcast in which Jones said, “So, if children were lost at Sandy Hook, my heart goes out to each and every one of those parents. And the people who say they’re parents that I see on the news. The only problem is, I’ve watched a lot of soap operas. And I’ve seen actors before. And I know when I’m watching a movie and when I’m watching something real.”
The lawsuits also allege that Jones’ insistence that the shooting was staged encouraged others to make death threats against the victims’ families.
The gunman, Adam Lanza, fatally shot his mother before driving to the school to carry out the massacre and then killed himself.