Gun Maker, Sellers Found Not Liable in Brooklyn Bridge Shooting Death

NEW YORK — A gun maker and several sellers of firearm parts cannot be held liable for a crime that resulted in the killing of a teenager, a jury found Friday in the first U.S. trial of its kind.

The verdict came in a lawsuit filed by the parents of Aaron Halberstam, who was killed four years ago when Lebanese native Rashid Baz opened fire on a van filled with Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Halberstam, 16, was killed and Nachum Sosonkin and Levi Wilhelm were wounded

Baz, a taxi driver, was convicted of murder and attempted murder.

Halberstam’s parents sued Wayne and Sylvia Daniel of Duckworth, Tenn., and seven firearm-manufacturing companies owned by the couple.

Devorah and David Halberstam claimed that the Daniels were negligent in selling gun-making kits for $150 to $200 because anyone could buy them by telephone without a background check.

The Daniels said there was no evidence linking them to the murder. Defense attorney Daniel Kane compared the Halberstams’ lawsuit to filing suit against an automobile manufacturer over a car accident. He said the case was ill-conceived from the beginning.

But Richard Davis, attorney for the Halberstams, said, “What is clear is that the violent use of this weapon was clearly foreseeable by the defendants.”