DAYTON, Ohio — Just days before the second anniversary of Oregon District mass shooting in Dayton, a new lawsuit is calling for accountability and damages for the victims and their families.
The 2019 Oregon District Mass shooting claimed the lives of nine people — sending shockwaves around the state and country.
Two years later in Dayton, family members of the victims are suing large-capacity Magazine Maker KCI USA.
“People see this one day, and it’s out their head the next. It don’t happen with us,” Plaintiff Dion Green said. “This is our life. We don’t see our families no more.”
The families are being represented by Columbus-based law firm Cooper Elliott — who claim this is a first of its kind lawsuit — alleging negligence against the Las Vegas branch of the Korean-based company.
“Two years ago it only took 30 seconds for a man to kill nine people and wound 17 others,” Cooper Elliot Law Firm Partner Ben Cooper said. “And that’s because he had a 100-round magazine.”
While the lawsuit primarily seeks financial damages for the victims families, the group is hopeful it can spark some momentum for legislation to ban the sale of 100-round capacity magazines.
“Through this lawsuit, the families are seeking accountability,” Cooper said. “And they want the companies to stop selling these dangerous products in dangerous ways.”
“We believe this lawsuit is the first to focus solely on the dangers presented by the indiscriminate manufacture and sale of a large capacity magazine,” Brady Chief Counsel and Vice President of Legal Jonathan Lowy wrote in a statement. “These are instruments of terror that have been used over and over to turn everywhere from shopping centers to churches to elementary schools into war zones. Two years ago in Dayton, OH, a 100 round ammunition magazine enabled a shooter to turn a popular entertainment district into a battle scene that killed nine people and wounded 17 others. We are bringing this suit on behalf of victims and survivors in hopes to prevent another tragedy like Dayton. We look forward to proving our case in court.”
Plaintiff LaSandra James is the mother of Lois Oglesby, a 27-year-old mother killed in the Oregon shooting. She said her grandchildren deserve answers.
“My granddaughter just two or three days ago was talking it’s that time of the year again, her mother’s anniversary of her death,” James said. “She’s asking questions. She’s counting the roses, asking how is this possible that one person could kill nine people that fast? She needs answers, we need answers. Something has to be done.”
Spectrum News 1 Legal Analyst Rory Riley-Topping said this case could feel the impact of another lawsuit connected the Sandy Hook Shooting. In that case, a settlement has been offered.
“They could proceed on the grounds that how these magazines and weapons were marketed was negligent,” Riley-Topping explained. “And that they knew that by marking really military style weapons that mass shootings and mass casualties could result.”
Riley-Topping said KCI USA will use the Protective of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act as its main defense.
“Which basically said if you have a product that’s used in a crime you are not directly liable for it,” Riley-Topping said. “And while that is true, we have seen with things like the marketing angle, it’s not a blanket immunity from liability, there are other ways around it.”
Spectrum News 1 reached out to KCI USA for comment but did not receive a response.
