KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The gun used in a 2016 deadly workplace shooting at Excel Industries was sold at a pawn shop in Newton, Kansas.
That business, named A Pawn Shop, is now facing a lawsuit alleging that the AK-47 should not have been sold to the girlfriend of the man who used it to kill three people and injure 14 others.
Attorneys filed the lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of Subrina Luke.
Attorney David Morantz represents Luke and her adopted son, 6-year-old John Higbee. Luke was Joshua Higbee's fiancée when he was shot and killed in 2016 at Excel Industries. John is Higbee's son. He was 4 years old when his father was murdered.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence jointly filed the legal action with Morantz. The lawsuit alleges that A Pawn Shop should not have sold the AK-47 to the girlfriend of Cedric Ford, the man who used it in the Excel Industries shooting.
Morantz explained that Ford's girlfriend purchased the gun using Ford's credit card.
"Using somebody else's credit card is an indication that the person who is getting the gun under the counter is not the intended end user of the gun... and is a sign of a straw purchase," said Morantz.
"When you're selling or transacting a high-powered military assault rifle whose only purpose is to kill and injure as many people as possible, you've got to have a heightened degree of suspicion for what that gun might be used for," Morantz added.
We contacted A Pawn Shop and they would not comment on the lawsuit.
