Survivors of mass shooting at Louisville bank plan lawsuit against the gun maker
Victims of a mass shooting in downtown Louisville earlier this year plan to file a lawsuit against the maker of the assault-style rifle used in the attack, an attorney representing several people confirmed Monday.
Tad Thomas, an attorney with offices in Louisville, Chicago and elsewhere, said he represents five people who survived the shooting at the Old National Bank. He also represents the estate of one man who died, Jim Tutt Jr., a senior vice president at the bank.
The Washington Post reported the lawsuit was in the works Monday and Thomas confirmed that to the Herald-Leader.
The attack happened at the downtown bank early on April 10. Connor Sturgeon, a bank employee, killed five people and wounded eight others, including a police officer, before an officer shot and killed Sturgeon.
Officials previously confirmed that Sturgeon had used an AR-15 model gun which he bought legally in Louisville a few days before the shooting. The Washington Post reported Monday that the gun was from a Texas company called Radical Firearms.
Thomas said the lawsuit against Radical Firearms will be similar to one that families filed against gun maker Remington after a disturbed young man used an AR-15 to kill 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012.
The argument in that case was that the gun maker had violated consumer-protection laws with marketing that targeted troubled young men.
Similarly, the Kentucky lawsuit will claim the maker of the gun used in the Old National Bank attack violated the state’s consumer protection act through its marketing, Thomas said.
Federal law protects gun makers from liability in many cases, but one exception is if the conduct of the company violated a state law, Thomas said.
Victims of the Old National Bank shootings will argue Radical Firearms did that, using sexual imagery and other tactics in its marketing to imply that “you’re not a man if you don’t own an AR-15,” Thomas said.
“I feel like nothing is going to change in regards to assault weapon control until it starts impacting the wallets and bank accounts of the gun manufacturers,” Dana Mitchell, a bank employee who was shot but survived, told the Washington Post.
Remington ultimately settled the Sandy Hook Case for $73 million.
Thomas is working with a Chicago firm, Romanucci & Blandin, on the lawsuit. Tony Romanucci, one of the founding partners, has extensive experience in mass shooting cases, Thomas said.
Lawyers are in the process of drafting the complaint and hope to file it by the end of the year, Thomas said.
Radical Firearms declined to comment when contacted by the Herald-Leader Monday.
This story was originally published October 30, 2023 at 3:45 PM.
