Gun shop ordered to pay millions to injured police officers

A jury in Milwaukee, Wis., has sided Tuesday with two police officers in a civil case that claimed a gun store bore a few responsibility in the illegal sale of a gun that was later used in their shooting.

The policemen were each shot in the face by Julius Burton, 18, after they stopped him for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk and a fight ensued.

They ordered Badger Guns to pay Norberg $1.5 million and Kunisch $3.6 million, in addition to $730,000 in punitive damages.

What the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is calling a “first-of-its-kind verdict” has attracted national attention on the Democratic presidential campaign trail as Hillary Clinton has called for the repeal of laws that shield gun manufacturers and retailers from liability. The Wall Street Journal reports the lawsuit said the shop ignored warning signs that Jacob Collins, 21, was buying a Taurus semiautomatic pistol for Burton. The officers scuffled with the teen, before he drew his weapon and shot both officers in the face. Norberg was shot in the mouth and bullet fragments are still lodged in his cheek.

The officers’ lawyer said his clients were “very relieved”, but said he anticipated years of appeals.

Despite Collins crossing out and changing answers on his gun application, he walked out of Badger Guns with a gun.

The ruling came in a negligence lawsuit that the officers filed against the owners and operators of Badger Guns in Wisconsin. He lost an eye and part of the frontal lobe of his brain and was forced to retire.

(Lawyer) “If Badger Guns had done its job, then Bryan and Graham would not have been shot.”

Five of those were the key questions as to whether Badger Guns broke the law, and if they did, did they knowingly do it; did they negligently do it; and were they liable for that?

The gun shop’s attorneys denied wrongdoing. She said it was nothing more than a routine transaction where a business is sold to a family member.

Authorities have said more than 500 firearms recovered from crime scenes had been traced back to Badger Guns and Badger Outdoors, making it the ‘No. The two young men’s behavior, as well as improperly marked forms, should have tipped off the clerk that the sale was a “straw purchase”, the officers’ attorney said.

Burton pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree attempted intentional homicide and is serving an 80-year sentence; Collins got a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to making a straw purchase for an underage buyer.