Group of survivors, victims’ families to sue maker of gun used in Old National Bank shooting

October 30, 2023

Hannah Woosley-Collins,

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WTVQ) — A group of survivors and victims’ families of the Old National Bank shooting in downtown Louisville are planning to file a lawsuit against Radical Firearms, a Texas company that produced the rifle the gunman used during the attack.

In a Washington Post report, Karen Tutt, Dallas Schwartz and Dana Mitchell are among those joining the suit that mirrors the same legal strategy that resulted in a $73 million settlement between Remington and nine families of victims killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Tutt’s husband, James Tutt, was killed in the shooting. He was a market executive at the bank.

Schwartz was a co-worker of the gunman; she was shot in both legs during the attack and has since been on partial medical leave from the bank after undergoing surgery.

Mitchell, who was a mentor to the gunman and the vice president of treasury management at the bank, was shot in the back during the attack.

The Post‘s report says some close to the 25-year-old knew he was having problems about a month before the shooting.

“He had abruptly turned away from his companions during a family beach vacation and began walking into the ocean, later telling his parents he briefly considered drowning himself.

He had just started seeing a psychiatrist, and his parents thought his new medication might have been the cause of the suicidal thoughts. He had also experienced anxiety attacks at work, where some colleagues recall, he was falling short and frequently absent — a ‘no call, no show’ employee, as one put it,” The Post wrote.

His parents nor anyone around him say no one knew that on April 4, six days before the mass shooting, he had purchased a gun.

On April 10, he brought an AR-15 rifle into the downtown bank where he worked and killed five people and wounded eight others, including two officers, before he was shot and killed.

“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,” Mitchell told The Washington Post.

According to details of the police investigation provided to his parents, the gunman bought the rifle from River City Firearms, a small store near the Louisville airport. The gun’s instruction manual says, “Radical Firearms shall not be responsible for injury, death, or damage to property resulting from either intentional or accidental discharge of this firearm.”

Tutt, Schwartz, Mitchell and a group of other survivors and victims’ families are being represented by Tad Thomas of Louisville and a Chicago-based firm, Romanucci & Blandin.

Cris Parsons, Radical’s former VP of sales, told The Post he believes gun manufacturers are “doing more good than harm by providing millions of Americans with self-defense weapons.”

“It’s heartbreaking that something like that happens,” Parsons said. “But the world is a s—-y place all the way around. A gun is a tool. They have mass stabbings in China and Japan. A sick person is a sick person, and they’re going to cause harm no matter what.”

While the gunman’s parents aren’t backing specific legislative solutions, they wonder if the shooting could have been prevented by a law that would require gun buyers to wait a period of time before purchasing and taking possession.

“What matters is that he shouldn’t have had a freaking gun,” Todd Sturgeon, the gunman’s father, said. “He shouldn’t have been able to get one.”