Attorney Ben Crump Announces Plan to Sue Gun Manufacturer, ‘Anybody Else’ Linked to Buffalo Shooting

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing one family of a victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, called on Thursday to hold accountable anyone who was an “accomplice” to the attack.

Crump said that includes gun manufacturers, in response to a question at a press conference at the Antioch Baptist Church. Crump, other attorneys, and Reverend Al Sharpton held the conference along with four families of victims of the shooting.

“We absolutely intend on going after the gun manufacturers, the gun distributors, and anybody else who was an accomplice to this young, 18-year-old white supremacist,” Crump said.

Under federal law, gun makers have historically been shielded from liability when a crime is committed with one of their products. But the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook mass shooting recently won a $73 million settlement from Remington by arguing that the company’s marketing of the AR-15 that was used in the massacre violated Connecticut consumer law.

When a reporter asked if Crump would “go after the parents,” Crump responded, “We intend on going after everybody who was an accomplice to this young monster killing innocent people.”

Law enforcement officials are considering hate-crimes charges for the alleged shooter, a white male who is accused of killing ten people and wounding three in an attack at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo last Saturday. Eleven of the victims were black, and authorities are investigating the shooter’s alleged writings in which he explained racist motives for the attack.

The suspect was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday morning, with relatives of the victims in the courtroom.

Later at the press conference, family members of victims spoke of their grief following the shooting. Tirzah Patterson, whose ex-husband Heyward Patterson was among those killed, said their twelve-year-old son’s “heart is broken.”

“He half sleeps, he half eats and as a mother, what am I supposed to do to help him get through this? I need a village to help me raise and be here for my son because he has no father,” Patterson said. “They took his father, he will grow up fatherless. He has to live even after this and I have to pray that God gives me strength to raise him the best of my ability.”

Crump has gained notoriety representing the families of black men who were victims of alleged police misconduct, including, most notably, the family of George Floyd.