Attorneys for the family of Luis Garcia, the East High School student shot and killed in February, have taken the first step in filing a lawsuit against Denver Public Schools, court records show.

The wrongful death claim filed on behalf of Garcia’s parents, Santos Garcia Mata and Criselda Bobadilla Sandoval, seeks damages in excess of $1 million.

Matthew Barringer, a Greenwood Village attorney in Arapahoe County, filed a “notice of claim” on May 2 against the school district and Board of Education.

State statute requires a claim notice before any legal action can be brought against a public entity or employee.

Barringer did not respond to an inquiry from The Denver Gazette and school district officials declined comment.

Just after 2:30 p.m. Feb. 13, police responded to a report of a shooting at East High School, finding Garcia still sitting with gunshot wounds in his car on the northside of campus.

The 16-year-old soccer player succumbed to his injuries two weeks later.

“It’s still very much an active investigation,” Doug Schepman, a spokesman with the Denver Police Department told the Denver Gazette Thursday. “The investigation at this time has not yet resulted in an arrest.”

The claim asserts that DPS was negligent because of “the lack of security and/or sufficient student parking at Denver East High School” and specifically sites the removal of school resource officers (SRO).

In the summer of 2020, at the height of the national protests against police brutality after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, the board decided to cut ties with the Denver Police Department.

School police officers were later removed from campuses.

In addition to DPS’ board members, the claim names a dozen individuals, including Jerald Mason and Eric Sinclair, two administrators shot in a separate incident five weeks later at East High School.

That shooting prompted the board of education to temporarily return SROs to the district’s comprehensive high schools and instruct Superintendent Alex Marrero to fast-track a comprehensive safety plan before the end of June.