Kentucky
Families sue gun shop that sold AR-15 used in 2023 bank shooting that killed 5
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky gun shop that sold an assault weapon to a man who used it to kill five co-workers and wrote in his journal the gun was “so easy” to buy is facing a lawsuit filed Monday from survivors and families of the victims.
The civil suit filed in Louisville alleges River City Firearms should have been more suspicious of the sale and noticed red flags when Connor Sturgeon bought the gun six days before the April 10 shooting. Sturgeon walked into Old National Bank and opened fire on co-workers who were having a morning meeting, killing five and injuring several others. A responding police officer was also shot.
Sturgeon, 25, struggled with mental illness and wrote in a journal he was “very sick,” according to an extensive Louisville police report on the shootings released in November.
River City Firearms is a federally licensed dealer, which means sellers there are “trained to spot individuals who ... may have nefarious intentions,” according to the lawsuit. Patrons inside the store said Sturgeon had little knowledge of firearms and appeared embarrassed during the purchase, the lawsuit said. The shop has a “legal duty” to withhold a sale from a buyer who it can reasonably tell might be a danger to others, the suit said.
The owners of the store should know that AR-15-style weapons like the one Sturgeon bought “have become the go-to weapon for young men intent on causing mass destruction,” according to the lawsuit. which was first reported by the Courier Journal.
Sturgeon bought a Radical Firearms RF-15, 120 rounds and four magazine cartridges for $762. He wrote in his journal the process took about 45 minutes.
“Seriously, I knew it would be doable but this is ridiculous,” he wrote.
River City Firearms did not immediately respond to an email message sent to the store Monday. A phone call to the store was not answered Monday evening.
Sturgeon fired more than 40 rounds over the course of about eight minutes, according to the Louisville police report. Investigators said he did not appear to have a firm understanding of how to operate the weapon. Sturgeon was fatally shot by a responding Louisville police officer just minutes after the shooting began.
The families of two of the deceased victims — Joshua Barrick and James Tutt — are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with three shooting survivors.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers from the Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, along with Louisville attorney Tad Thomas and Everytown Law, a Washington-based firm that seeks to advance gun safety laws in the courts.
California
Lawsuit alleges HIV-positive inmate died after being denied medication at jail
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being held in a Northern California jail alleges he contracted a preventable viral infection there when its medical staff denied him critical HIV medication for two months.
When Nicholas Overfield was arrested in Feb. 2022 for a failure to appear in court, he informed officers that he was HIV-positive and required antiretroviral medication to keep the virus in check, according to the court filing.
His mother, Lesley Overfield, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, handed the arresting officers her son’s prescribed medication but he was never administered it, the filing says.
“Medical records show that he was denied his prescribed HIV medication for the entire two months he was detained,” the lawsuit alleges.
Overfield’s health deteriorated rapidly as his HIV “devolved into AIDS” and he was eventually released from jail and hospitalized, according to court documents. He died while under hospice care on June 21, 2022.
The civil lawsuit filed Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court names El Dorado County and the jail’s contracted healthcare provider, Wellpath Community Care. It demands a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages.
Officials with the county and Wellpath didn’t immediately reply on Monday to emails seeking comment on the allegations.
The lawsuit says when Lesley Overfield visited her son on April 22, 2022, he “was so unwell and so diminished that he could not even speak to his mother.” She demanded “the jail provide Nick with the medical care he clearly needed” and he was rushed to a hospital that same evening, according to the filing.
“Defendants were either unaware of or, worse, ignoring the severity of Nick’s general health and medical condition until they were forced to confront those things by his mother,” the lawsuit says.
Overfield’s death certificate said he died of encephalitis “and indicated that Nick contracted this virus two months prior to his death,” while he was in custody, according to court documents.
California
Woman charged with killing Hollywood consultant Michael Latt pleads not guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman charged with killing a high-profile marketing consultant and social justice advocate in film pleaded not guilty Monday.
Jameelah Elena Michl, 36, entered the plea in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges of murder and burglary, with additional allegations that she used a firearm to commit the felonies.
Prosecutors say she knocked on the door of the Los Angeles home of Michael Latt — then forced her way in and fatally shot him with a semi-automatic handgun on Nov. 27. He was later declared dead at a hospital.
Latt, 33, was a well-known consultant in Hollywood whose firm focused on social impact in film and entertainment. He had worked on projects with directors including Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay.
Prosecutors and court records say Michl had been stalking and threatening director A.V. Rockwell, and targeted Latt because he was friends with Rockwell. Michl was the subject of several restraining orders from Rockwell.
Rockwell’s latest film “A Thousand and One,” starring Teyana Taylor, won the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and earned her a Gotham Award for breakthrough director on the same night Latt was killed.
Michl could get life in prison if convicted.
Latt’s mother Michelle Satter, a founding director of the Sundance Institute, was given an honorary Oscar for her humanitarian work on Jan. 10, just weeks after the killing. At the ceremony, Satter and the two directors she mentored who presented her the award, Coogler and Chloe Zhao, paid tribute to Latt.
“Michelle, you’ve changed our lives, but I do believe Michael was your greatest gift to the world,” Coogler said.
Satter said that she wished to share the award with her late son, who “led with love.”
Louisiana
Ex-Army soldier charged in Capitol riot was convicted of manslaughter for killing Iraqi man in 2004
A former U.S. Army soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a handcuffed civilian in Iraq was arrested Monday on charges that he attacked police officers with a baton during the U.S. Capitol riot three years ago.
Edward Richmond Jr., 40, of Geismar, Louisiana, was wearing a helmet, shoulder pads, goggles and a Louisiana state flag patch on his chest when he assaulted police in a tunnel outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Richmond was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday on charges including civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police with a dangerous weapon.
Richmond’s Louisiana-based attorney, John McLindon, said he hadn’t seen the charging documents and therefore couldn’t immediately comment on the case.
Richmond was 20 when an Army court-martial panel convicted him of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to three years in prison for killing the handcuffed Iraqi civilian near Taal Al Jai in February 2004. Richmond also received a dishonorable discharge from the Army.
Richmond initially was charged with unpremeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But the panel of five officers and five enlisted soldiers reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter.
The Army said Richmond shot Muhamad Husain Kadir, a cow herder, in the back of the head from about six feet away after the man stumbled. Richmond testified that he didn’t know Kadir was handcuffed and believed the Iraqi man was going to harm a fellow soldier.
During the Jan. 6 riot, body camera footage captured Richmond repeatedly assaulting police officers with a black baton in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, the FBI said. Police struggled for hours to stop the mob of Donald Trump supporters from entering the Capitol through the same tunnel entrance.
A witness helped the FBI identify Richmond as somebody who had traveled to Washington, D.C., with several other people to serve as a “security team” for the witness for rallies planned for Jan. 6, according to the agent’s affidavit.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with nearly 500 receiving a term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Surveillance video showed Duprey driving the motorcycle on a sidewalk toward a group of people, including the sergeant, who was not in uniform. As he approached, the video shows Duran pick up the red picnic cooler and throw it. Duprey is struck, loses control, and is tossed toward a tree as the motorcycle veers into the street. The bike smashes into a metal barricade before coming to rest against a parked car.
Duprey had three young children and worked as a delivery driver.
Duran, a 13-year veteran of the department, joined the Bronx Narcotics Unit in 2022. He has been recognized by the department dozens of times for what it deems excellent and meritorious police service, according to a police personnel database.
Duran’s disciplinary record includes a substantiated complaint in 2022 for abusing his authority during a stop, according to the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Duran’s next court date is April 18.
Families sue gun shop that sold AR-15 used in 2023 bank shooting that killed 5
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky gun shop that sold an assault weapon to a man who used it to kill five co-workers and wrote in his journal the gun was “so easy” to buy is facing a lawsuit filed Monday from survivors and families of the victims.
The civil suit filed in Louisville alleges River City Firearms should have been more suspicious of the sale and noticed red flags when Connor Sturgeon bought the gun six days before the April 10 shooting. Sturgeon walked into Old National Bank and opened fire on co-workers who were having a morning meeting, killing five and injuring several others. A responding police officer was also shot.
Sturgeon, 25, struggled with mental illness and wrote in a journal he was “very sick,” according to an extensive Louisville police report on the shootings released in November.
River City Firearms is a federally licensed dealer, which means sellers there are “trained to spot individuals who ... may have nefarious intentions,” according to the lawsuit. Patrons inside the store said Sturgeon had little knowledge of firearms and appeared embarrassed during the purchase, the lawsuit said. The shop has a “legal duty” to withhold a sale from a buyer who it can reasonably tell might be a danger to others, the suit said.
The owners of the store should know that AR-15-style weapons like the one Sturgeon bought “have become the go-to weapon for young men intent on causing mass destruction,” according to the lawsuit. which was first reported by the Courier Journal.
Sturgeon bought a Radical Firearms RF-15, 120 rounds and four magazine cartridges for $762. He wrote in his journal the process took about 45 minutes.
“Seriously, I knew it would be doable but this is ridiculous,” he wrote.
River City Firearms did not immediately respond to an email message sent to the store Monday. A phone call to the store was not answered Monday evening.
Sturgeon fired more than 40 rounds over the course of about eight minutes, according to the Louisville police report. Investigators said he did not appear to have a firm understanding of how to operate the weapon. Sturgeon was fatally shot by a responding Louisville police officer just minutes after the shooting began.
The families of two of the deceased victims — Joshua Barrick and James Tutt — are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with three shooting survivors.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers from the Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandin, along with Louisville attorney Tad Thomas and Everytown Law, a Washington-based firm that seeks to advance gun safety laws in the courts.
California
Lawsuit alleges HIV-positive inmate died after being denied medication at jail
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being held in a Northern California jail alleges he contracted a preventable viral infection there when its medical staff denied him critical HIV medication for two months.
When Nicholas Overfield was arrested in Feb. 2022 for a failure to appear in court, he informed officers that he was HIV-positive and required antiretroviral medication to keep the virus in check, according to the court filing.
His mother, Lesley Overfield, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, handed the arresting officers her son’s prescribed medication but he was never administered it, the filing says.
“Medical records show that he was denied his prescribed HIV medication for the entire two months he was detained,” the lawsuit alleges.
Overfield’s health deteriorated rapidly as his HIV “devolved into AIDS” and he was eventually released from jail and hospitalized, according to court documents. He died while under hospice care on June 21, 2022.
The civil lawsuit filed Jan. 16 in U.S. District Court names El Dorado County and the jail’s contracted healthcare provider, Wellpath Community Care. It demands a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages.
Officials with the county and Wellpath didn’t immediately reply on Monday to emails seeking comment on the allegations.
The lawsuit says when Lesley Overfield visited her son on April 22, 2022, he “was so unwell and so diminished that he could not even speak to his mother.” She demanded “the jail provide Nick with the medical care he clearly needed” and he was rushed to a hospital that same evening, according to the filing.
“Defendants were either unaware of or, worse, ignoring the severity of Nick’s general health and medical condition until they were forced to confront those things by his mother,” the lawsuit says.
Overfield’s death certificate said he died of encephalitis “and indicated that Nick contracted this virus two months prior to his death,” while he was in custody, according to court documents.
California
Woman charged with killing Hollywood consultant Michael Latt pleads not guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman charged with killing a high-profile marketing consultant and social justice advocate in film pleaded not guilty Monday.
Jameelah Elena Michl, 36, entered the plea in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges of murder and burglary, with additional allegations that she used a firearm to commit the felonies.
Prosecutors say she knocked on the door of the Los Angeles home of Michael Latt — then forced her way in and fatally shot him with a semi-automatic handgun on Nov. 27. He was later declared dead at a hospital.
Latt, 33, was a well-known consultant in Hollywood whose firm focused on social impact in film and entertainment. He had worked on projects with directors including Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay.
Prosecutors and court records say Michl had been stalking and threatening director A.V. Rockwell, and targeted Latt because he was friends with Rockwell. Michl was the subject of several restraining orders from Rockwell.
Rockwell’s latest film “A Thousand and One,” starring Teyana Taylor, won the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and earned her a Gotham Award for breakthrough director on the same night Latt was killed.
Michl could get life in prison if convicted.
Latt’s mother Michelle Satter, a founding director of the Sundance Institute, was given an honorary Oscar for her humanitarian work on Jan. 10, just weeks after the killing. At the ceremony, Satter and the two directors she mentored who presented her the award, Coogler and Chloe Zhao, paid tribute to Latt.
“Michelle, you’ve changed our lives, but I do believe Michael was your greatest gift to the world,” Coogler said.
Satter said that she wished to share the award with her late son, who “led with love.”
Louisiana
Ex-Army soldier charged in Capitol riot was convicted of manslaughter for killing Iraqi man in 2004
A former U.S. Army soldier who was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a handcuffed civilian in Iraq was arrested Monday on charges that he attacked police officers with a baton during the U.S. Capitol riot three years ago.
Edward Richmond Jr., 40, of Geismar, Louisiana, was wearing a helmet, shoulder pads, goggles and a Louisiana state flag patch on his chest when he assaulted police in a tunnel outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Richmond was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday on charges including civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police with a dangerous weapon.
Richmond’s Louisiana-based attorney, John McLindon, said he hadn’t seen the charging documents and therefore couldn’t immediately comment on the case.
Richmond was 20 when an Army court-martial panel convicted him of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced him to three years in prison for killing the handcuffed Iraqi civilian near Taal Al Jai in February 2004. Richmond also received a dishonorable discharge from the Army.
Richmond initially was charged with unpremeditated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But the panel of five officers and five enlisted soldiers reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter.
The Army said Richmond shot Muhamad Husain Kadir, a cow herder, in the back of the head from about six feet away after the man stumbled. Richmond testified that he didn’t know Kadir was handcuffed and believed the Iraqi man was going to harm a fellow soldier.
During the Jan. 6 riot, body camera footage captured Richmond repeatedly assaulting police officers with a black baton in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, the FBI said. Police struggled for hours to stop the mob of Donald Trump supporters from entering the Capitol through the same tunnel entrance.
A witness helped the FBI identify Richmond as somebody who had traveled to Washington, D.C., with several other people to serve as a “security team” for the witness for rallies planned for Jan. 6, according to the agent’s affidavit.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with nearly 500 receiving a term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Surveillance video showed Duprey driving the motorcycle on a sidewalk toward a group of people, including the sergeant, who was not in uniform. As he approached, the video shows Duran pick up the red picnic cooler and throw it. Duprey is struck, loses control, and is tossed toward a tree as the motorcycle veers into the street. The bike smashes into a metal barricade before coming to rest against a parked car.
Duprey had three young children and worked as a delivery driver.
Duran, a 13-year veteran of the department, joined the Bronx Narcotics Unit in 2022. He has been recognized by the department dozens of times for what it deems excellent and meritorious police service, according to a police personnel database.
Duran’s disciplinary record includes a substantiated complaint in 2022 for abusing his authority during a stop, according to the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Duran’s next court date is April 18.
