Victims, families in FedEx mass shooting file lawsuit against gun distributor
Victims and families of victims of the April 2021 mass shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx facility have filed a lawsuit against the gun distributor and magazine manufacturers of the weapon used in the attack that killed eight and injured five others.
The suspected gunman, Brandon Scott Hole, opened fire outside the building and in a locker room area of a FedEx facility just outside of Indianapolis, shooting indiscriminately for three minutes before walking back into the locker room and taking his own life, according to police.
American Tactical -- the alleged exclusive gun distributor of the high-capacity magazine used in the shooting -- its president, its marketing director and magazine manufacturer Schmeisser GmbH, are all named in the suit. They are accused of negligence, public nuisance and unlawful marketing.
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The suit also accuses the defendants of having high-capacity magazines that are "unreasonably dangerous" and "enable unlawful mass shootings" when sold to civilians.
"Despite knowing that mass killers are attracted to HCMs to carry out mass shootings, American Tactical, Inc. deliberately marketed and sold the 60-round magazine used in the attack," Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, the law firm filing the suit on behalf of victims and victims' families, said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Jaswinder Singh, who was killed in the shooting; Harpreet Singh, a FedEx worker who was shot in the head; Dilpreet Kaur, Harpreet Singh's wife; and Lakhwinder Kaur, a FedEx worker who was shot in the arm.
The suit accuses the defendants of "reckless practices," including selling high-capacity magazines with a 60-round capacity and allowing customers to purchase them "without providing any legitimate reason for needing an HCM," and allowing customers to purchase them without any face-to-face interaction, providing their criminal history or completing a mental health screening.
The suit also accuses the defendants of "affirmatively marketing HCMs in a manner that they knew, and intended, would target these highly lethal products to young men with delusions of fighting in a war, an obsession with video games, and insecurities regarding their masculinity."
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"Defendants deliberately marketed and sold HCMs to the general public -- and not just any HCM, but 60-round magazines that have approximately six times the killing capacity of standard magazines. Defendants sold these HCMs without a single safeguard, screening, or limit," the lawsuit alleges.
When the defendants marketed the magazines, they knew or should have known of the existence of a "category of consumers containing individuals like the shooter, who would be attracted to such a weapon accessory and could pose a tremendous risk to the safety of others," Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll said in a statement.
"American Tactical, Inc. sold these high capacity magazines without a single safeguard, screening or limit in place, despite knowing that they are unreasonably dangerous to sell to the civilian public. It is clear that the Defendants put profits from high capacity magazines ahead of people, which came at the grave expense of the victims and victims’ families of the FedEx mass shooting," said Leslie Mitchell Kroeger, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.
American Tactical told ABC News it had no comment on the lawsuit. Schmeisser GmbH has not responded to a request for comment.
The lawsuit came just two days before the annual National Rifle Association convention got underway in Indianapolis. Former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and several other high-profile people were scheduled to speak at the convention.
Victims, families in FedEx mass shooting file lawsuit against gun distributor originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
