After a straw-purchased gun was used in a St. Paul bar shootout that injured more than a dozen people and killed a bystander, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday they’ve reached a settlement with Fleet Farm.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2022 against Fleet Farm, alleged the Wisconsin-based retailer sold at least 37 firearms to two people over 16 months, often selling multiple guns either in single transactions or over short time periods.

“I took Fleet Farm to court after the company put the lives of Minnesotans in danger by ignoring clear warning signs and selling guns to straw buyers,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a Tuesday statement. “The warning signs that Fleet Farm ignored were so clear that Fleet Farm themselves went on to use those sales as examples of obvious red flags in internal trainings.”

Straw purchasers are people who illegally buy guns for others who cannot legally buy guns themselves, such as those convicted of felonies or with a record of committing domestic violence.

In a consent judgement filed by Ellison and Fleet Farm on Tuesday in federal court, Fleet Farm agreed to take steps at their Minnesota stores to improve detection of illegal gun purchasing by:

Having a specific list of warning signs of potential straw purchasing that employees must monitor and act upon, based on customers’ purchase history and behavior in the store.
Improving training for employees who sell firearms, including regular and unannounced compliance checks.
Using software that allows employees to track firearm sales at Fleet Farm stores and see alerts about suspicious buyers.
Updating discipline policies for employees who don’t notice warning signs of straw purchasing.
Using a system that alerts employees about sales to people previously linked to guns used in crimes.

Fleet Farm will also be required to pay $1 million to resolve the lawsuit. After payment to the University of Minnesota Gun Violence Prevention Clinic for legal fees, the funds will be split between the newly created Minnesota Consumer Protection Restitution Account and the state general fund.

The consent judgment says “Fleet Farm has had and continues to have policies, procedures, and trainings related to firearm sales, including on how to monitor for and prevent possible straw purchases” and before the lawsuit was filed, “Fleet Farm had already implemented a corporate-level system for monitoring and evaluating multiple gun purchases across its stores,” which the retailer “has agreed to further develop this system.”

Within 60 days of the court’s approval of the consent judgment, the settlement says Ellison will disclose internal Fleet Farm documents that his office obtained in discovery and used in depositions and in court.

“Those documents include warnings a store manager raised about straw sales, which Fleet Farm ignored,” said a Tuesday announcement from Ellison’s office. “They will also include training materials Fleet Farm created that describe those sales to straw buyers ‘pretty obvious’ examples of what should ‘raise a flag.’”

Fleet Farm sought to dismiss the lawsuit, but a federal judge in 2023 denied the retailer’s motion.

Attorneys for Fleet Farm and a company spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

Shootout at St. Paul bar led to federal straw purchasing charges

The lawsuit alleged that straw purchasers Jerome Fletcher Horton Jr. and Sarah Jean Elwood bought 37 firearms at Fleet Farm.

Marquisha Wiley, 27, was a bystander when she was fatally shot Oct. 10, 2021, at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar in St. Paul. (Courtesy of the Wiley family)

One of the guns the retailer sold to Horton was fired on Oct. 10, 2021, at Seventh Street Truck Park in a shooting that killed 27-year-old Marquisha “Kiki” Wiley of South St. Paul. Fifteen other people were injured at the West Seventh Street bar.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigators traced the handgun found at the scene back to the Blaine Fleet Farm, where it was purchased by Horton, according to a federal charge against him.

A Taurus Spectrum .380-caliber pistol that Fleet Farm sold to Elwood in January 2021 was allegedly used in a gun-pointing incident six months later in North Minneapolis. Police recovered the weapon 184 days after Fleet Farm sold it to Elwood, the lawsuit states.

Horton and Elwood both pleaded guilty in federal court.

In Ramsey County District Court, Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr. was sentenced in 2023 to nearly 37 years in prison for the murder of Wiley and the attempted murder of other bystanders. Devondre Phillips, who was found guilty of attempted murder, and was sentenced to a prison term of just under 29 years.

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