After a three-week trial and one day of deliberations, the jury determined that the primary responsibility lay with the gunman and the company that sold him the ammunition used in the attack. The jury assigned 80 percent of the fault to the shooter and 20 percent to Lucky Gunner, the Tennessee-based company from which the shooter purchased the ammunition. The lawsuit was filed by relatives of seven people killed and four wounded in the attack. The plaintiffs argued that the parents, Antonios Pagourtzis and Rose Marie Kosmetatos, failed to provide adequate support for their son’s mental health issues and did not do enough to prevent him from accessing their firearms. Jake Felde, CEO of Lucky Gunner, said it is not responsible for any damages awarded because it was dismissed from the lawsuit. “Lucky Gunner wasn’t a party to the trial, so it was easy for the jury to place some of the blame on us because we weren’t there to defend ourselves,” he said. The jury awarded more than $300 million in total damages, including for pain and mental anguish. The shooter, 23-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, was charged with capital murder, but the case was put on hold in 2019 after he was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. He has since been held at a state mental health facility. “If we’re not going to have gun control laws as it relates to sellers, we at least need laws on how people keep and store their guns if we’re going to protect our children,” said Alton Todd, a lawyer for Rhonda Hart, whose daughter Kimberly Vaughan was killed in the shooting. “These parents stood up and tried, and this jury just didn’t think we met our burden of proof.” Lori Laird, an attorney for Pagourtzis’ parents, said she was pleased with the jury’s decision. “I think the parents needed to be vindicated and [it] needed to happen publicly,” she said. The case is part of a newfound effort to try and hold parents accountable when their child commits a mass shooting. Earlier this year, James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of a teenager who killed four students in a 2021 school shooting, were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter. They are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child.A Texas jury has ruled that the parents of a former student who killed eight students and two teachers in a 2018 high school shooting are not financially liable for his actions.
