Families sue Kentucky gun shop that sold AR-15 used in 2023 bank shooting that killed 5
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky gun store that sold an assault weapon to a man who used it to kill five co-workers and wrote in his diary that the weapon was “so easy” to buy is facing a lawsuit filed Monday by survivors and families of the victims.
The civil suit filed in Louisville alleges that River City Firearms should have been more suspicious of the sale and noticed red flags when Connor Sturgeon purchased the gun six days before the April 10 shooting. Sturgeon walked into Old National Bank and opened fire on colleagues who were having a morning meeting, killing five people and wounding several others. A responding police officer was also shot.
Sturgeon, 25, struggled with mental illness and wrote in a diary that he was “very sick,” according to an extensive Louisville police report on the shootings released in November.
River City Firearms is a federally licensed dealer, meaning salespeople there are “trained to identify individuals who … may have nefarious intentions,” the lawsuit says. Customers at the store said Sturgeon had little knowledge of firearms and appeared embarrassed during the purchase, the lawsuit said. The store has a “legal duty” to withhold a sale to a buyer who could reasonably be determined to be a danger to others, the lawsuit said.
The store’s owners should know that AR-15-style weapons, like the ones Sturgeon purchased, “have become the weapon of choice for young men seeking to cause weapons of mass destruction,” the lawsuit says. This was first reported by the Courier Journal.
Sturgeon purchased a Radical Firearms RF-15, 120 rounds and four magazine cartridges for $762. He wrote in his diary that the process took about 45 minutes.
“Seriously, I knew it would be doable, but this is ridiculous,” he wrote.
River City Firearms did not immediately respond to an email message sent to the store Monday. A call to the store was not returned Monday evening.
According to the Louisville police report, Sturgeon fired more than 40 bullets in about eight minutes. Investigators said he did not appear to have a good understanding of how to operate the weapon. Sturgeon was fatally shot by a responding Louisville police officer just minutes after the shooting began.
The families of two of the deceased victims – Joshua Barrick and James Tutt – are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with three survivors of the shooting.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys from the Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, along with Louisville attorney Tad Thomas and Everytown Law, a Washington-based firm that aims to advance gun safety laws in court.