The parents of a teenage girl who was gunned down and killed as she was leaving school are taking legal action against the company that may be considered partially responsible for her untimely and tragic death.
Angellyh Marieh Yambo was a 16-year-old honors students who was shot as she was leaving her South Bronx High School in 2022.
Jeremiah Ryan, who shot Yambo, was in a dispute with two men outside the school and fired six shots, striking and killing her and also wounding two other 17-year-olds. Ryan, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison last year.
Now, Yambo’s parents have sued the company that sold the components of the ghost gun allegedly used to kill her.
The suit was filed in Bronx Supreme Court earlier this week and alleges the manufacturer of the un-serialized and untraceable gun kit, Polymer80, is as culpable for Yambo’s death as the teenager who shot her.
Yambo’s parents said they hope that their legal action against the manufacturers of Polymer80 will hold ghost gun makers accountable for killings involving their products. Their efforts follow a similar case initiated by families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012, in which they sued Remington, the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first-grade children and six educators in the Newtown, Connecticut school.
Yet despite these efforts of the past, federal law still makes it difficult for people to sue gun manufacturers.
Yambo’s mother, Yanely Henriquez, has spoken out about how easy gun sellers make it for people to acquire these deadly weapons.
“You could just go online, you purchase it, and it gets delivered to your house,” she said in a Gothamist Interview this past Friday. “That shouldn’t be like that. If you sold the kit, you need to be held responsible for that.”
Nevada-based Polymer80 advertises a variety of gun parts and accessories, including frames, slides, holsters and full building kits. According to Yambo’s parents’ attorney Anthony Beneduce, the 9mm pistol used to kill her was made with a frame that Polymer80 advertises in three different colors, though a disclaimer on their website says the part cannot be shipped to 14 states, including New York.
“If it wasn’t for this manufacturer flooding our country and specifically our streets in New York with these ghost guns… the 17-year-old at the time would not have an opportunity to have gotten his hands on this weapon,” Beneduce said. “It was not just a cause, it was the cause.”
Polymer80 CEO and Loran Kelly Jr. have not commented on the lawsuit or their alleged violation of shipping guidelines.
