Highland Park Shooting Survivors Sue Smith & Wesson, Gun Shops, Crimos

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Survivors of the mass shooting at the Highland Park 4th of July parade and families of slain paradegoers this week filed a series of civil lawsuits in state court against the maker of the gun used in the shooting, two firearm dealers who sold it, the man charged with firing it and his father, who permitted him to apply for a license to own it.

Gunmaker Smith & Wesson is alleged to have violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act by the way it markets assault-style weapons — like the M&P 15 semiautomatic rifle that authorities say was used to shoot more than 50 people, seven fatally, from a rooftop at the corner of 2nd Street and Central Avenue.

According to complaints filed Wednesday in Lake County circuit court on behalf of victims and survivors, the publicly traded Massachusetts-based firearm manufacturer, "knowingly sought to place its weapons in the hands of disturbed young men by targeting and exploiting the risk-seeking—and often troubling—desires of these consumers."

The father of the accused gunman, Robert Crimo Jr., sponsored his then-19-year-old son's application for a Firearm Owners Identification card — less than nine months after the teen attempted suicide and just four months after he was the subject of a "clear and present danger" report with Illinois State Police following reported threats to family members.

The elder Crimo was "aware of his son's hate-filled and violent rhetoric," and he "knew that his son was unstable and wanted to kill people," yet he never warned law enforcement or took any steps to mitigate the risk his son posed, making him negligent, according to the complaints.

Bud's Gun Shop, the Kentucky firearm dealer that sold the rifle in a online purchase during the summer of 2020, and Red Dot Arms, the Lake Villa gun store where the alleged shooter picked up the weapon, are both accused of "knowingly aiding and abetting" his illegal acquisition of the gun.

"As we all know, it is illegal to possess assault weapons in both Highland Park and Highwood, yet as we've alleged in the complaint, the gun store defendants, knowing this, chose to sell and transfer the Smith & Wesson M&P rifle, an assault weapon, to the shooter, thereby facilitating the mass shooting that occurred on July 4," Alla Lefkowitz, senior director of affirmative litigation at Everytown Law, said at a news conference Wednesday. "And for that reason, we will hold them accountable."

Both Lake County municipalities have ordinances on the books defining assault weapons and prohibiting their acquisition and possession within their boundaries. Residents of either community may legally own such firearms but must store them outside city limits, a requirement recently challenged in federal court by a Highland Park resident.

---

The gun industry is generally shielded by a federal law — the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act — from lawsuits over irresponsible business practices, Lefkowitz said. But there is an exception for knowing violations of state or federal laws applicable to the sale and marketing of firearms.

"And here that's exactly what is being alleged," she said. "That Smith & Wesson, in addition to the two gun shops that have been named as defendants, did violate the law. With respect to Smith & Wesson, it is the consumer protection laws of Illinois, and with regard to the gun stores defendants, it is the assault weapon ban ordinances."

Lauren Bennett, one of the survivors suing Smith & Wesson and the other defendants, said getting shot by an AR-15 style rifle at the parade felt like a hot metal dart tearing through her skin.

"Within the first few seconds, while most people were unaware of what was happening, I was hit for the first time. I felt a tight shock in my back and hip and saw my entire lower left side was bleeding. I knew right then we were under attack. At that precise moment, I assumed I was a target, and maybe I was, because when I got up to run, I was hit again by another bullet that deeply cut through my upper back," Bennett said.

---

The bullets narrowly missed Bennett's spine. Doctors who later examined her wounds were amazed she survived, she told reporters Wednesday, describing how she learned that day that anyone can be in the line of fire at any moment.

"We ran through bullets darting all around us in every direction. We ran around and over pools of blood that had engulfed the unfortunate people who would not be going home to their families that day," Bennett said.

"My husband was running with our 6-year-old and 9-year-old boys literally for their lives, shielding them while exposing himself to shooting bullets because we all know that their young innocent lives are far more precious than our own," she said. "Those boys dodged bullets. They jumped over fallen bodies while running behind me and looking at my blood-soaked body, they assumed that their mother was probably bleeding to death."

Bennett said she and her family are calling for full accountability for everyone who contributed to the "unthinkable nightmares" that now define their lives.

"We survived a battle zone that day and will carry the most horrendous images with us for the rest of our lives," she said. "As we've been healing in these following weeks, we've come to terms with the reality that perpetual safety in the most shielded of places is nonexistent."

The 22-year-old Highland Park High School dropout awaiting trial on 117 counts in criminal court in connection with the massacre has also been named as a defendant in the civil suits filed this week. He is alleged to have committed battery and, along with the rest of the defendants, intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

Days before he would legally acquire his first rifle, the accused shooter created a profile on an online forum where he would go on to post more than 3,500 times up until the day of the shooting, engaging in hate speech and discussing graphic depictions of death, according to the suit. Screen captures included in the suit show the user "Awake47" posting antisemitic messages and calls for genocide against Black and Asian people in the days before the shooting.

---

After the shooting, investigators found gory photos, including dismembered and decapitated bodies, on his phone, according to the complaint, which documents some of the violent imagery contained in his music videos and social media posts.

"His obsession with violence, including in the guise of military-style missions, made him a prime target for Smith & Wesson’s youthful, adrenaline-fueled, military-style marketing and advertising," the complaints alleged.

"Their goal was to create 8 million new gun owners," said attorney Antonio Romanucci. "And how did they do it? They groomed children."

While the "M" and "P" in the name of the line of rifles in question purportedly stands for "military" and "police," the complaints allege that the company implies a non-existent relationship with the military, falsely conveying to consumers the idea that such rifles are used or otherwise endorsed by the military.

According to attorneys for the victims and survivors, four of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in the past decade have been carried out by M&P 15s, which were first introduced in February 2006.

"The M&P15 and M&P15T join a comprehensive family of Smith & Wesson products designed and manufactured to meet the needs of law enforcement professionals," company officials said at the time. "Other products include a full-line of Smith & Wesson's world-renowned revolvers used for primary duty and backup side arms, the recently announced M&P series of polymer pistols designed specifically for law enforcement and military use, and a wide range of handcuffs, restraint products and tactical vision devices."

Smith & Wesson's annual reports show it did not secure a single major firearm supply contract with a large domestic military agency between 2009 and 2016, and the results of a public records request show just the company has only inked a single military contract the past 10 years — the sale of 250 revolvers to the U.S. Army, "apparently destined for Thailand," according to the complaint.

---

"Consumers, shareholders and decent people everywhere should be enraged by the corporate misrepresentations of Smith & Wesson's relationship with the U.S. military. A fiction. This M&P? There's no military, one military person in this country that uses an S[&]W M&P-15 in the way that their marketing glorifies these weapons designed for military mass destruction," plaintiffs' attorney Romanucci said Wednesday, describing the shooting as both preventable and predictable.

"So long as we can show that Smith & Wesson's marketing was a cause in this shooter doing what he did, we prevail," he said.

The lawsuits also allege that, because the AR-15 style rifles can be "easily modified" to fire automatically, they should be regulated as machineguns under the 1934 National Firearm Act.

Chris Boehning, a partner at Paul, Weiss, and one of the survivors' attorneys, said the gun industry has refused to take any accountability or steps to reduce the risk of mass shootings carried out by the consumers it targets.

"Smith & Wesson has been on notice for years that its marketing and sales practices were stoking this violence, yet it continues to target its advertising to consumers, like the shooter here, that it knows are impulsive and prone to violence," Boehning said. "Time and again, Smith & Wesson has seen its products used in mass shootings, like Aurora, San Bernardino, Parkland and Highland Park, and that violence is consistent with the messaging in its advertisements."

Smith & Wesson representatives did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The law firms Romanucci & Blandin, Everytown Law, Paul, Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Hunt Law filed 10 of the complaints. Another was filed by Edelson, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and Dentons. The firm Rappaport Law & Koskoff, Koskoff & Beider is representing another victim's family but had not yet filed suit as of Wednesday.

---

At the joint news conference announcing the suit, attorneys read several statements provided by survivors of the shooting, including one from Myrna Rodriquez, who was shot in her backside at the parade.

"My 5-year-old son was super excited when I told him that we were going to the parade he asked me 'what’s a parade?'," Rodriguez said.

"I explained to him what we celebrate and that there was going to be candy and lots of fun stuff to see and he was super excited," she continued. "But I did not tell him he would need to terrified. We never expected the fear of losing one of our children or my husband’s life or maybe my own life. I don’t know for how long the nightmares will live in our lives. That’s why we demand justice.”