Gun Maker Named in Suit Over Shooting

A gun manufacturer is partly to blame for the police shooting of a black motorist because it sold the weapon she had on her lap when she was killed, the city claimed in a lawsuit.

Lorcin Engineering Co. negligently marketed and distributed the .380-caliber gun Tyisha Miller had when she was found unresponsive in her car Dec. 28, 1998, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.

Lorcin failed to educate or train users regarding the safe and correct way to use guns, the lawsuit said.

Four white police officers shot Miller after they found the 19-year-old from Rubidoux sitting unresponsive with a gun on her lap inside a locked and idling car at a gas station.

The officers, who were dismissed after the shooting, said they fired when Miller moved toward the weapon. Miller did not fire the gun, and investigators later determined that it was inoperable.

The racially charged case has attracted numerous protests to the desert community, which is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Riverside officials want Lorcin to be listed as a co-defendant along with the city in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Tyisha Miller’s family, said Skip Miller, the city’s attorney in this case.

“We think they bear significant responsibility,” said Skip Miller, who is not related to Tyisha Miller. “This whole thing would not have occurred but for the presence of this loaded Lorcin L380. That gun should never have been there.”

Activists in the case said the lawsuit was an effort by the city to shift blame from the officers who shot her.