The widower of a woman who was killed while visiting her mother at a Kansas senior living community in 2014 is suing Walmart, a firearms dealer, two gun show operators and a man who purchased one of the guns used in the shooting, according to the Kansas City Star.
The newspaper reports that the lawsuit, filed April 11 in Jackson County Circuit Court by Jim LaManno, husband of the late Terri LaManno, maintains that Walmart workers and gun show dealer Friendly Firearms should have known from remarks and behavior that a straw buyer was purchasing shotguns on behalf of someone who was not allowed to purchase guns. That someone else was Frazier Glenn Cross, a convicted felon.
Cross, who also used the last name Miller, subsequently allegedly used those weapons when he killed three people in Overland Park. Terri LaManno was shot outside the Village Shalom continuing care retirement community, where her mother lived in assisted living, and a 14-year-old boy and his grandfather were killed outside a nearby Jewish community center. Cross reportedly told police that he targeted the buildings hoping to kill Jewish people, but none of the victims was Jewish.
The lawsuit was filed as the two-year anniversary of the shootings, April 13, approaches.
In addition to Walmart and Friendly Firearms, also named in the lawsuit are two companies — R.K. Show Inc., of Cedar Rapids, IA., and R.K. Shows, Mo., Inc., of Clayton, MO — that ran the gun show where Friendly Firearms allegedly sold weapons to John Mark Reidle, who reportedly made at least one purchase on behalf of Cross.
Reidle pleaded guilty in September to lying on a federal form for indicating that he was buying the gun purchased at Walmart for himself. Cross was convicted Aug. 31 of three counts of first-degree murder and in November was sentenced to death.
April 12, Jim LaManno was among those attending the Jewish Community Center’s dedication of a sculpture and plaque in memory of his wife and the other victims.
