Five people were killed and several more were injured when a man wielding an AR-15 opened fire inside Old National Bank in downtown Louisville in 2023. On Monday, a Jefferson County judge ruled a lawsuit filed on behalf of victims’ families can move forward to hold a Louisville gun seller, a distributor and a firearm accessory manufacturer accountable.
Calling the shooting “one of the worst acts of mass violence this community has ever experienced,” Circuit Court Judge Mitch Perry decided a federal law granting gun manufacturers and dealers broad immunity from crimes committed with their wares did not preclude the case from moving forward.
“The defendants’ narrow reading of the predicate exception would effectively render it nonexistent,” Perry said in the decision.
The suit, filed by several victims and relatives of victims, lays out in detail the moments leading up to the 2023 shooting that killed five people and injured eight more, excluding the shooter — normal workplace chit chat and coffee machine drips. It describes how Dallas Schwartz first saw the shooter, Connor Sturgeon, walk out of an office and wonder if there was some kind of drill before he shot her in the leg.
The lawsuit alleges that River City Firearms was negligent when it failed to identify warning signs in Sturgeon and proceeded to sell him an AR-15 and several shooting accessories. It describes an unnamed eyewitness to the sale who allegedly considered calling police after witnessing his averted gaze, quiet tone and “complete lack of knowledge or experience.”
In a statement, one of the lawyers representing the victims, Antonio M. Romanucci, said his clients have shown “extraordinary courage” in bringing the case.
“Today’s ruling affirms that gun dealers, manufacturers, and distributors cannot turn a blind eye to obvious warning signs or profit from dangerous upgrades without consequence,” Romanucci said. “We will continue pressing forward so the victims, survivors, and their families receive the accountability they deserve.”
The reach of the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act has been frequently contested in court, including in the initial dismissal and then reinstatement of the lawsuit filed by some of the families of victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The law broadly protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from liability when crimes are committed with their products in most circumstances — although it does provide some narrow exceptions.
This decision is a procedural one — it is not a ruling on the merits of the case, but allows those merits to have the chance to be fully aired. The lawsuit is aimed at River City Firearms, which sold the shooter an AR-15 and several accessories six days before he would kill five people, distributor RSR Group and firearm accessory company Magpul Corp., which created the large-capacity magazines, red-dot sight and vertical grip sold to the shooter.
The lawyers for the three defendants did not return a request for comment. In their filing asking to dismiss the case, lawyers for River City Firearms argue the sales were lawful and complied with all requirements. They wrote the seller completed all necessary paperwork and background checks; Kentucky does not require any permitting or training to purchase or carry a firearm over the age of 18 and concealed carry is legal for those over 21 years old.
“Moreover, there is generally no duty to control the conduct of a third person to prevent him from causing harm to another,” the motion, which the judge denied Monday, argued.
Perry said in his decision that the claims of general negligence and of “negligent entrustment” — which occurs when someone allows another person to use a dangerous object when they have reason to know the person is incompetent, reckless or likely to cause harm — could continue.
“Here, the hazard is that a noticeably disturbed person will be upsold dangerous accessories they do not need and embark on a murderous rampage, enabled and enhanced by those accessories,” Perry wrote. “It was entirely foreseeable that this outcome would occur.”
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
