Walmart sued over sale of bullets used in Pennsylvania murders

American retail giant Walmart Stores has been slapped with a lawsuit for selling bullets to a young buyer without due verification of his age or intoxication level, which were allegedly used in a Pennsylvania murder.

The families of the victims, who sued the retail giant, claimed that Walmart store employees negligently sold a box of bullets to an under-aged, intoxicated customer whose ammunition was later used in murdering three people, reports CNBC.

Compensation sought

The lawsuit filed in Philadelphia sought compensatory damages from Walmart and the employees at its Easton, Pennsylvania store.

According to the law suit, bullets were purchased by Robert Jourdain on July 5 at 2:56 a.m. Jourdain, then 20, handed over the bullets to Todd West, then 22, who later loaded them into his .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and randomly shot and killed a stranger, Kory Ketrow, 22, in Easton.

“At no time did the Walmart defendants ... require that Robert Jourdain present appropriate and valid identification,” the lawsuit said.

“Nor did the defendants take any precautions to determine whether Mr. Jourdain was intoxicated,” it added.

After 20 minutes, West murdered Francine Ramos, 32, and Trevor Gray, 21, in Allentown, who were strangers to him.

Walmart response

Reacting to the law suit, spokesman Randy Hargrove said Walmart follows a policy that requires cashiers to verify the age of buyers who seek guns or ammunition.

He said the company would argue that the bullets purchased by Jourdain were in order and could have been used in either handguns or rifles. The spokesman claimed that the lower age limit of 18 is legal for the purchase of ammunition for rifles.

West, Jourdain, and their accomplice Kareem Mitchell will soon appear in court for arguments on pre-trial motions, court officials said.

Legal immunity over

Unlike the past, sellers of guns and ammunition in the US are no longer immune from liability by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

In 2015, in a significant case, a jury held a Milwaukee gun store liable for selling a gun to a 21-year-old customer despite misgivings aired by clerks that the buyer was making an illegal purchase. As feared by the clerks, the gun was later misused by an 18-year-old to shoot two police officers, who were awarded damages by the jury.

Executive director of CeasefirePA, Shira Goodman, said negligent behavior of sellers is forcing many victims of gun violence to seek the protective cover of the federal law.

Walmart’s UK price war

Meanwhile, Asda--the British supermarket arm of Walmart fired the first salvo in New Year’s retail price war. The retailer announced its intent to spend 500 million pounds (AU$1.04 billion) for slashing prices to take on the rivals and boost customer traffic, Reuters reported.

All the big four supermarket chains in the UK—Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have been on a price cutting spree to regain customers flocking to German discounters Aldi and Lidl. Asda had the worst sales performance in 2015, with the management seeking more rofit margins more than volume of sales.

“We must take radical action to win back our customers,” CEO Andy Clarke said, pointing to the challenge posed by the discounters.