Subway shooting lawsuit against Glock on hold amid appeal over NY law that lets victims sue gunmakers
A New York City subway shooting injured 29 people, including Ilene Steur, who is suing Glock
A federal lawsuit a New York City shooting victim filed against Glock Inc. has been stayed after all parties agreed to let an appeals court rule on whether the New York General Business Law under which was filed is constitutional.
Ilene Steur, a 49-year-old Brooklyn woman, initially sued Glock at the end of May, alleging under a New York General Business Law that the gun manufacturer endangered "the safety or health of the public" through the sale of its weapons.
She was among 29 people injured, 10 of them by gunfire, on April 12 when a man named Frank James allegedly popped a smoke canister on a crowded subway during rush hour and fired off more than 30 rounds from a 9mm pistol.
After James caused a panic in the Big Apple, eyewitnesses spotted him near a McDonald’s on Sixth Street and reported him to authorities. Police also said he called them himself from the area.
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An image of the Glock 17 handgun Frank James allegedly used to open fire on a crowded N train during rush hour on April 12. (US District Court Eastern District of New York / Fox News)
Police said James’ criminal record consisted of nine prior arrests in New York alone and three in New Jersey.
READ THE COMPLAINT
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office filed a motion to intervene last week. Her office declined to comment to Fox News Digital for this story.
Glock is contesting the constitutionality of the law, which triggered a federal rule allowing the state attorney general to intervene and defend its constitutionality. However, a federal appeals court is also handling a challenge to the law, and the parties agreed to let that play out after a conference Tuesday morning, according to Sanford Rubenstein, one of Steur’s attorneys.
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Steur’s 46-page complaint alleges that Frank James, "a man reported to be a 62-year-old Black nationalist put on a gas mask, threw two smoke grenades, and opened fire with a Glock 17 9 mm handgun bearing serial number KBR155 (hereinafter ‘Glock firearm’) as the train approached the 36th Street station."
New York City Police Department officers arrest subway shooting suspect Frank R. James, 62, in the East Village section, of New York, Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Meredith Goldberg / AP Newsroom)
Police said 29 people were treated for injuries – with 10 suffering from gunshot wounds. Others had symptoms of smoke inhalation or other ailments sustained at the frantic scene. Authorities said no one was killed.
Steur was injured "as a result of direct gunfire," according to the complaint, which blames Glock for creating a "public nuisance" by marketing firearms and "purposely supplying more firearms than the market could bear in order to induce sales on the secondary market."
The suit also accuses Glock of "not training dealers to avoid straw sales and other illegal transactions and…refusing to terminate contracts with distributors who sold to dealers with disproportionately high volumes of guns traced to crime scenes."
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An attorney for Glock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"This scourge of gun violence must be stopped. Holding gun manufacturers liable when their marketing creates a public nuisance will be helpful in that regard," Rubenstein told Fox News Digital Tuesday.
The subway shooting suspect, Frank James, faces federal domestic terrorism charges.