Gabe Parker

News outlets report Marshall Circuit Court Judge James Jameson on Friday set June 1, 2020, as the trial date for Gabriel Parker, who recently turned 17. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Several families of students injured or killed in the 2018 shooting at Marshall County High School filed a lawsuit Monday against members of the school district, as well as the alleged suspect and his family members.

Gabe Parker has been indicted on two counts of murder and 14 counts of assault, after he allegedly opened fire with a handgun at Marshall County High School shortly before 8 a.m. on January 23. 

Bailey Holt and Preston Ryan Cope -- both 15-year-old students -- died in the attack.

The lawsuit alleges that several individuals, from the school superintendent  to Parker, failed the shooting victims -- and requests the plaintiffs receive unspecified monetary damages. 

The lawsuit was filed in Marshall Circuit Court by the family members of three students who were injured, as well Holts' parents.

More than a dozen individual defendants are named in the lawsuit. They include Marshall County School Superintendent Trent Lovett, members of the county Board of Education, school principal Amy Byars Waggoner, several assistant principals, the school's security director and the senior counselor at the school.

The lawsuit claims that the school administrators failed to provide for the students' safety, failed to recognize Parker's "dangerous propensities" and failed to train employees to have a functioning emergency action plan. It also criticizes several unidentified "private counselors" for failing to recognize warning signs in Parker.

Also named in the suit are Justin Minyard and Mary Garrison Minyard, Parker's stepparent and parent. The lawsuit accuses them of failing to property secure the firearm Parker allegedly used in the attack.

The suit says Parker "maliciously, wantonly and with reckless disregard for the safety of others, and with the intent to cause serious physical harm, discharged the weapon he obtained from his stepfather and mother and opened fire on innocent students."

Among other things, the families are asking a Marshall County Circuit judge to award them compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages, including past medical bills, future loss of earnings, as well as past pain and suffering incurred by each of the plaintiffs.

The office of Trent Lovett, the Marshall County School Superintendent, was contacted Tuesday afternoon, but declined to comment on pending litigation. 

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