Deputies, company tentatively settle ‘ghost gun’ lawsuit

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who were seriously injured in a 2020 ambush shooting near a Compton transit center have tentatively settled a lawsuit they brought against a company they maintained had manufactured and sold parts of the “ghost gun” used in the attack.

Deputies Claudia Apolinar and Emmanuel Perez-Perez contended in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that an “unserialized Polymer80 firearm” used in the shooting “was originally purchased as a kit in California from either Polymer80 or one of Polymer80’s third-party distributors, who sold it without performing a background check.”

Attorneys for the deputies filed court papers on Tuesday with Judge Daniel S. Murphy stating notifying him of a “conditional” settlement in the case and that a request for dismissal will be filed by Dec. 27. No terms were divulged.

Attorneys for Nevada-based Polymer80 stated in earlier court papers that the lawsuit did not allege that the shooter sought out a Polymer80 product in particular nor did he receive any assistance from the company in obtaining the item allegedly used or in machining a PF940C unfinished frame into an operable weapon. The defense lawyers also said the plaintiffs’ pleadings included discussions of school and courthouse shootings that “indisputably” did not involve Polymer80 products.

“These scurrilous references — transparently and shamelessly — are designed to tar Polymer80 by association,” the Polymer80 attorneys further stated in their court papers.

The deputies were shot Sept. 12, 2020, while sitting in their patrol SUV parked outside a transit center in Compton. The shooting was captured on surveillance video from the station, sparking a countywide manhunt.

The suspect, Deonte Lee Murray, was arrested three days later and ballistics tests allegedly linked a handgun he discarded during a law enforcement pursuit with the attack on the deputies.

Murray, a convicted felon, was legally prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm.

“The shooter was able to commit the ambush shooting of the deputies because (Polymer80’s) deliberate and reckless acts created a direct and secondary market that foreseeably provided prohibited persons like the shooter with easy access to unserialized ghost guns assembled from kits and purchased without any background check,” according to the deputies’ lawsuit, which was filed in August 2021.

“Upon information and belief, the shooter chose to shoot the deputies with this Polymer80 ghost gun in substantial part because he knew it was unserialized and untraceable by normal means.”

The suit accused the company of violating both federal and state firearms laws. It also states that the company is under federal investigation over the sale of gun kits.

Murray, 39, was found guilty Sept. 28 of a crime spree that included the shootings of the deputies, which was captured on surveillance video outside a Compton transit center. Jurors found him guilty of 10 counts, including two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer.

The jury also convicted Murray of one count each of attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, carjacking and robbery, along with four counts of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Murray is facing a potential life prison term, according to Deputy District Attorney Stephen Lonseth. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 16 in a Compton courtroom.