Gun maker found not liable for police shooting
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A judge has ruled that the country's largest firearms maker is not liable for two police officers being shot by a felon using a gun made by the Connecticut company.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Irene Berger on Thursday ruled that former Orange, N.J., police officers Dave Lemongello and Kenneth McGuire are not entitled to damages from Fairfield, Conn.-based Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc.
Lemongello and McGuire had sued the gun maker and a South Charleston pawnshop two years ago, arguing they should pay damages because a Ruger handgun sold at the shop had been used to shoot them in January 2001.
Berger said it would require "a real stretch" to make the gun maker responsible for the use of a gun that had originally been sold to an Ohio wholesaler. By the time it got to the pawnshop, the gun had been sold three times and given away once.
The company did not violate its duty to exercise reasonable care in selling its product because the pawnshop was "not the immediate distributor for Ruger," Berger said.
The company was "pleased with the court's ruling," said Sturm, Ruger attorney James Vogts.
Will's Jewelry and Loan Co., the pawnshop where the gun was sold, settled with the officers for $1 million in June.
A clerk at the shop sold the gun and 11 others to taxi driver Tammi Songer even though another man, James Gray, picked out the guns and carried them out the door. Songer later said Gray- a felon who could not legally buy guns - had paid her cash to act as his purchaser.
Gray sold one of the guns to three-time felon Shuntez Everett, who shot the officers. Everett was killed in the gun battle. The officers were disabled and have retired.
Songer and Gray spent time in federal prison for their roles in the gun sale.
