Highland Park mass shooting victim's lawsuit against Smith & Wesson can proceed, Illinois court says
An Illinois court has allowed a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a Highland Park mass shooting victim against gunmaker Smith & Wesson to go forward.
Smith & Wesson makes the M&P 15 Tactical Rifle, the AR-15-style gun that was used in the July 4, 2022 mass shooting in Highland Park that killed seven people and injured dozens more.
Robert Crimo III pleaded guilty to 21 counts of first-degree murder and 48 counts of attempted murder on the first day of what would have been his trial at the beginning of March, and likely faces life in prison without parole.
His father, Robert Crimo Jr., pleaded guilty and served 60 days in jail on seven felony counts of reckless conduct when he signed the application for his son to obtain an Illinois Firearm Ownership Identification, or FOID, card.
The family of Eduardo Uvalde, who was one of the seven people killed in the parade shooting, filed the wrongful death lawsuit in June 2024, with a group of survivors and families of children who were present that day joining them.
The lawsuit alleges Smith & Wesson continued to market and sell the M&P 15 and also pushed it on teenagers despite it being used in four mass shootings in the past 10 years. The M&P 15 was used in the mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado; San Bernardino, California; Parkland, Florida and Poway, California.
Families said the company's decision to continue to market and sell the weapon, particularly to teenagers, constituted a negligent entrustment and violated an Illinois state consumer protection law in promoting the lethal and criminal use of the weapon.
The court also allowed claims to move forward against BudsGunShop.com and Red Dot Arms, gun shops that sold the gun Crimo III used in the shooting.
Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, which previously represented the nine Sandy Hook families in the settlement against Remington, and Rapoport Weisberg & Sims P.C. is representing the plaintiffs in court.
