5 join suit against Ruger in Colo. mass shooting
FAIRFIELD — Five plaintiffs have joined a lawsuit against a Connecticut firearms manufacturer that produced the weapon used in a 2021 mass shooting, according to a lawyer working on the case.
Nathaniel Getz, the son of victim Suzanne Fountain, was initially named as the sole plaintiff when the lawsuit was filed on March 10. Fountain, a 59year-old theater actress and Medicare agent, was among 10 people killed at King Soopers supermarket in March 2021 in Boulder, Colo.
As the two-year statute of limitations for filing litigation for this type of case in Connecticut approaches, five plaintiffs have been added to the complaint in the past week, according to Vance Larimer, a partner with Larson Larimer Schneider, P.C., a Colorado law firm that specializes in personal injury law.
Larimer was not immediately able to provide a copy of the new complaint on Wednesday.
Representatives for Ruger did not respond to a request for comment.
Larson Larimer Schneider and two other firms, Harding & Associates and the Connecticut Trial Law Firm, filed suit against arms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. on March 10. Founded in 1949 by William Batterman Ruger and Alexander McCormick Sturm, Ruger is headquartered in the Southport section of Fairfield and maintains factories in Newport, N.H., Mayodan, N.C. and Prescott, Ariz.
Ruger describes itself on its website as “one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of rugged, reliable firearms for the commercial sporting market.” The company sells rifles, pistols, revolvers and various accessories, including scope rings, holsters and cheek pads.
While the firearm implicated in the Boulder mass shooting, a Ruger AR-556 pistol, is officially classified as a pistol, its features and capabilities render it virtually identical to a rifle, according to Larimer. He said Ruger designed the firearm that way to evade federal regulations regarding rifles.
“In essence, it was a short-barreled rifle classified as a pistol. Had it been (classified as) a short-barreled rifle and not a ‘pistol,’ there’s no way this guy would have been able to acquire it,” Larimer said, referring to the accused shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa.
On March 22, 2021, Alissa, then 21 and a resident of Boulder suburb Arvada, opened fire outside and inside the supermarket, killing a repairman, a responding police officer, employees and customers, including Fountain, according to authorities. Three of the victims were in their 20s. He had legally purchased the Ruger AR-556 pistol six days earlier after passing a background check, investigators said.
Alissa surrendered after another police officer shot and wounded him, according to authorities. He was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder for endangering the lives of 26 other people at the scene, but a trial has been delayed by repeated mental incompetence rulings. In February, Alissa’s lawyers said four psychologists had diagnosed their client with schizophrenia. One expert selected by prosecutors found that Alissa was “approaching catatonia” before he was transferred from prison to the state mental hospital in December 2021.
The lawsuit against Ruger alleges the company designed its AR-556 pistol to evade certain restrictions and engaged in marketing practices that violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, a piece of legislation that “prohibits unfair competition and unfair and deceptive acts.” Examples highlighted in the suit include practices that “glorified the lone gunman,” practices that “promoted lone gunman assaults” and materials that included such taglines as “Anything else would be un-American,” court documents show.
Describing Ruger’s marketing as “unethical,” “immoral,” “unscrupulous,” “oppressive” and “reckless,” the suit said the company’s conduct “was a substantial factor resulting in the injuries, suffering and death of Suzanne Fountain.”
Two years after the shooting, Getz remains “heartbroken” about his mother’s death, according to Larimer.
“(He) wants something positive to come out of this lawsuit as far as gun legislation or stopping the advertising that’s going on,” Larimer said. “He doesn’t want to be in the spotlight, but at the same time, he wants to make sure these people are held accountable.”
The original lawsuit sought more than $15,000 in monetary damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and “such other relief as the court may deem appropriate,” according to court documents.
Last year, mass shootings within 10 days of each other in Buffalo, N.Y,, and Uvalde, Texas, spurred the House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform to launch an investigation into the leading manufacturers of AR-15-style assault rifles. Ruger was one of five companies that were asked for information about the marketing and sale of such products as well as any efforts to collect relevant safety data.
Summarizing the alleged findings, Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney wrote in a July memorandum to the members of the committee, “These companies used disturbing sales tactics — including marketing deadly weapons as a way for young men to prove their manliness and selling guns to mass shooters on credit — while failing to take even basic steps to monitor the violence and destruction their products have unleashed.”