(Photo : Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images)
A lawsuit has been filed against social media companies, body armor manufacturers and a gun shop over a mass shooting at a New York supermarket that left 10 people dead.
On Wednesday, survivors and family members of those killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, filed a lawsuit against several online platforms, companies that sold or manufactured the shooter's weapon and body armor, and the shooter's parents.
Ben Crump and attorneys Diandra Zimmerman and Terry Connors announced the 171-page "landmark litigation" more than a year after the attack at Tops Friendly Market, in which ten people were killed and three were injured.
Survivors, Relatives of Buffalo Supermarket Mass Shooting File Lawsuit
The shooter, now 20 years old and live streamed the attack, stated in online documents that he chose the grocery store because it was located in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
According to USA today, Payton Gendron was sentenced to life without parole earlier this year after pleading guilty to more than a dozen offenses, including homicide and hate-motivated domestic terrorism.
In December, Gendron's counsel stated that he was prepared to enter a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence in federal court, where he faces hate crime charges.
The lawsuit asserts that the shooter was isolated by "defective social media products" and then "radicalized by overexposure to fringe, racist ideologies and was poised for the irresponsible and wanton behavior of the Weapons and Body Armor Defendants."
Crump stated on Wednesday that although Gendron was the one who discharged the gun, "many individuals assisted him in loading it."
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the gunshot victims' families: Heyward Patterson, Aaron Salter, Margus Morrison Sr., Pearl Young, Geraldine Talley, Ruth Withfield, and Robert Drury.
Plaintiffs include Zaire Goodman, his mother, Zeneta Everhart, Christopher Braden, Brooklyn Hough, Kisha Douglas, Jo-Ann Daniels, Robia Gary, and her unnamed infant.
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Buffalo Shooting Victims
In a racially-motivated rampage, the 18-year-old white supremacist drove some 200 miles (320km) to a predominantly black community in Buffalo and gunned down shoppers inside the Tops Friendly Market.
His victims were Ruth Whitfield, 86; Roberta Drury, 32; Aaron Salter, 55; Heyward Patterson, 67; Pearl Young, 77; Geraldine Talley, 62; Celestine Chaney, 65; Katherine Massey, 72; Margus Morrison, 52; and, Andre Mackneil, 53.
Three people were shot dead in the car park, the other seven were killed inside the supermarket, and three others were wounded.
Among the companies named in the lawsuit are Vintage Firearms, the gun store where the weapons were legally purchased; Twitch, the live-streaming service the attacker used; Facebook; YouTube; Google; and Amazon.
Per BBC, Remington, the manufacturer of the AR-15-style rifle the gunman uses, is not named in the suit. The company recently filed for bankruptcy, and co-counsel Terry Connors said, "We felt that if we were to bring a claim against them, that would only slow us down in litigation."
Last year, Remington settled for $73 million with families who lost loved ones in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
After that settlement, a wave of lawsuits has been filed against gunmakers, while states like California and New York have sought to hold manufacturers and distributors liable for shootings. In May, the families of three victims in Buffalo filed a wrongful death lawsuit against multiple social media companies.
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