Shot Cops Seek Sue Gunmaker, Dealer
Nov. 15 -- It was a man named Shuntez Everett who shot Orange, N.J., policemen David Lemongello and Kenneth McGuire one night at a gas station, but the two cops say a West Virginia gun dealer and the company that made the 9-mm semiautomatic used in the crime share the blame.
Lemongello and McGuire filed suit Thursday in Kanawha Circuit Court in Charleston, W. Va., seeking damages from a West Virginia pawnshop, Will's Jewelry and Loan, and from the the pistol's manufacturer, Sturm, Ruger and Co.
Also named as defendants are gun traffickers James Gray and Tammi Lea Songer, and the estate of the gunman, Everett, who was killed in the shootout that left the two policemen critically wounded.
The suit alleges that neither Will's Jewelry and Loan nor Sturm, Ruger exercised the controls that are required by law in gun transactions, which allowed the weapon to get into Everett's possession.
"Gun manufacturers and gun dealers have known for years that gun trafficking and multiple sales of firearms supply the criminal gun market," said Jonathan Lowy, a senior attorney with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence's Legal Action Project, which is representing the two policemen.
"They have the ability to stop the flow of guns to criminals, yet they do nothing," he added. "They must be made to realize that their irresponsible conduct has very real consequences — in this case, the shooting of two police officers."
Gun-Maker Immunity?
The suit came the same day a similar suit had success in Florida, where a jury ordered a gun distributor to pay $1.2 million to the widow of Barry Grunow, a teacher who was shot and killed by his student, 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill, in 2000. Pam Grunow claimed the cheap pistols distributed by Valor Corp. often fall into the hands of juveniles and criminals.
The verdict and the new suit are the sorts of cases recently targeted by the National Rifle Association, which is lobbying for federal legislation banning lawsuits by shooting victims against the dealers who sold the weapon used in the shooting, or against the company that manufactured the gun.
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