LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Four survivors of last April's mass shooting at Old National Bank in downtown Louisville joined the families of two of those killed that day in filing a lawsuit against the local shop that sold the AR-15 to the shooter.

Dana Mitchell, Julie Andersen, James Evans and Stephanie Schwartz filed the lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court on Monday, along with the families of James Tutt and Joshua Barrick, asking for undisclosed damages due to gross negligence and carelessness by River City Firearms. A call to the shop Monday went unanswered.

Connor Sturgeon, a 25-year-old employee of Old National Bank, bought an AR-15 from River City Firearms on April 4, six days before he walked into work and killed five of his co-workers and critically wounded a Louisville Metro Police officer.

"As (a federally licensed firearms dealer), River City has a legal duty to not sell guns to prospective purchasers whom it knows, or reasonably should know, pose an unreasonable risk of harm to themselves or others," the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit. "And given the red flags that Sturgeon presented at the time of purchase, it was a reckless dereliction of duty for River City to negligently entrust him with an AR-15-style rifle."

The lawsuit claims that River City not only failed to stop Sturgeon's purchase but "used the opportunity to make additional profit" by allowing him to also leave with "three additional 30-round large-capacity magazines, a red-dot sight to increase the accuracy of his aim, and a vertical grip for greater control over the weapon."

Those things, the lawsuit claims, made Sturgeon — "a novice shooter" — more deadly. A witness in the store, the lawsuit said, saw an employee teaching Sturgeon how to hold and load the gun and behaving "oddly."

That witness, the lawsuit said, turned to her husband upon hearing there was a mass shooting April 10 and said "I bet it's that kid from the store."

"While such upselling may be a common and innocuous sales practice in other industries, it is exceedingly dangerous when it involves products that enable a customer to kill faster and more efficiently," the lawsuit claims. "This fact should have been obvious to River City given the number of lives that (have) been taken by mass shooters in recent years wielding similarly equipped AR-15-style rifles."

The five bank employees killed in the shooting were Barrick, 40, a senior vice president; Deana Eckert, 57, an executive administrative officer; Tommy Elliott, 63, also a senior vice president; Juliana Farmer, 45, a loan analyst; and Tutt, 64, a commercial real estate market executive. It was the deadliest mass shooting in Louisville since 1989, when Joseph Wesbecker killed seven people and himself at Standard Gravure, his former workplace.

In its investigative file of the Old National Bank shooting, LMPD released Sturgeon's receipt from the gun purchase. The day he purchased the gun, ammunition and accessories for $762.90, Sturgeon wrote of his plans to carry out the shooting, saying he "would not have been able to do this" were it more difficult to buy a gun.

LMPD's investigative file included a large collection of the shooter's personal writings that noted his struggle with mental health. He also wrote about his desire to "make an impact" and show how easy it was for someone with his level of history of mental illness to purchase a gun.

After learning of a note Sturgeon left with his roommate, his mother told a 911 dispatcher the morning of the shooting that her son "didn't even own a gun." An interview with Sturgeon’s family disclosed that he was in "active therapy for mental health issues and on various medication for mental health." He made no statements about hurting himself or others at an appointment the Thursday before the shooting, according to the file.

Family members also said during the interview that Sturgeon had attempted suicide the previous year and voluntarily checked into a hospital. The week before the shooting, Sturgeon told his mother that he wanted to take leave from his job because of a panic attack but that he "could not pinpoint" what was going on.

Sturgeon wrote in an April 3 journal entry about his struggle with depression, including how he was unable to escape it through therapy, medications or other self-care methods, according to the file.

The next day, he purchased the gun used in the shooting.

Kentucky is not among 19 states that have passed so-called "red flag" or "extreme risk" legislation, including the bordering states of Indiana, Illinois and Virginia. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has urged his state's lawmakers to adopt a similar measure in the wake of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville in March 2023.

Bills creating such laws have failed to gain traction in the Kentucky General Assembly in recent years, even with bipartisan sponsorship, the backing of mass shooting survivor Whitney Austin and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's support of a bill providing funding to states that approve the laws.

Kentucky Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, presented to lawmakers late last year two versions of a proposed law that would at least temporarily remove a gun from someone if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others.

"We should be able ... to come up with some solution to respect the 2nd Amendment rights while still protecting that individual from themselves or from the harm of others from that person," Westerfield said in December. "... I believe it is your obligation to not be afraid to have difficult conversations about the toughest issues."

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