Fleet Farm accused of withholding records in Minnesota gun lawsuit
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Fleet Farm is accused of withholding key evidence from the State of Minnesota in an ongoing civil lawsuit involving firearms sales, according to new court filings.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is now asking a federal judge to compel Fleet Farm to hand over more evidence after his office became aware of a key document that the company did not initially hand over.
The backstory
Fleet Farm is being sued by the state for not doing enough to stop illegal straw purchases and selling guns that turned up at crime scenes across the Twin Cities metro.
Ellison filed the state’s lawsuit in 2022, after a mass shooting at the Truck Park Bar in downtown St. Paul. At least 14 people were injured and 27-year-old Marquisha Wiley was killed.
The ATF later traced one of the guns used in the deadly shooting back to Jerome Horton Jr.
He was convicted of running a straw purchasing operation in which he bought dozens of firearms for other people. Court records show 24 guns came from Fleet Farm locations.
The allegations
The lawsuit claims Fleet Farm disregarded "blatant warning signs," including multiple purchases of similar handguns, buying sprees and staggered visits to different locations.
Fleet Farm has denied the allegations in Minnesota’s lawsuit.
What’s new?
According to court filings, Fleet Farm "belatedly produced" a key document from a former Fleet Farm manager, after the AG’s office became aware of it. Fleet Farm’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
"Getting information from the gun industry is hard," said AG Ellison, in a recent interview with the FOX 9 Investigators. "This information is very precious and hard to come by."
The AG says the details in that document, which have been redacted in court filings, demonstrated "Fleet Farm knew or should have known that Horton was a straw buyer by at least July 31, 2021."
That was the same day Horton purchased a handgun at the Fleet Farm in Blaine, which was later used by one of the shooters in the Truck Park Bar shooting in St. Paul.
Other court records reviewed by the FOX 9 Investigators show Horton would go on to purchase nearly a dozen more guns at Fleet Farm locations in the following weeks.
AG Ellison says Fleet Farm "failed to take action," the filings said.