Riverside Sues Gun Maker in Shooting

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

Lorcin Engineering Co. negligently marketed and distributed the .38-caliber gun Tyisha Miller had when she was found unresponsive in her car on Dec. 28, 1998, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.

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

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

The officers, who were fired after the shooting, said they shot 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 located 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.”

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

Lorcin officials could not immediately be reached for comment.