Injured during mass shooting, cops sue Doral bar, citing negligence, inadequate security
Two police officers who were present during the April 6 mass shooting in CityPlace Doral’s Martini Bar are suing the establishment, alleging the bar failed to take adequate safety measures.
The lawsuit, which was filed Monday by attorney Bernardo Pimentel in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, states that Andre Romo and Ricardo Acevedo suffered “incapacitating injuries as they navigated a chaotic scene of stampeding patrons and faced direct gunfire from a dangerous and reckless armed assailant with a clear intent to kill.”
READ MORE: ‘Mass shooting. People down’: 911 calls reveal frantic scene during Doral bar shooting
The officers, according to the filing, are seeking more than $100,000 from the bar, as well as Park Square 5 LLC, which operates and maintains the property; the Madison Marquette Real Estate Services LLC, which controls the day-to-day activities of CityPlace Doral; and private security company SFM Security Services INC.
“While our duty as police officers is to protect and serve, our own lives need to be protected as well,” Acevedo said in a statement. “I feel extremely lucky to be alive.”
Romo, also in a statement, said: “I almost didn’t make it home to my wife and kids over a completely preventable incident and simple safety measures.”
The officers, according to the document, were patrolling CityPlace during an off-duty detail when suspected shooter Jamal Wood, 37, entered the bar with a semi-automatic handgun.
At around 3:30 a.m., the gunfire claimed the life of the bar’s 23-year-old security guard, George Castellanos. Seven people, including Acevedo, were injured.
READ MORE: Security guard killed in Doral bar shooting was an FIU student and future police officer
They were identified as Lester Williams Gonzalez, 28; Sonia Muñoz Torres, 48; Gerard Patrick “Joe” Delaney, one of Martini Bar’s owners; siblings Yaniris Jerez, 30, and Miguel Jerez, 34; and Yaniris’ boyfriend Carlos Milán, 38.
Wood, who died at the scene, fired at the officers “with the intent to kill, coming dangerously close to striking Romo and actually striking Acevedo in the leg, only centimeters from his femoral artery,” according to the lawsuit.
READ MORE: Who blasted the bullets that hit 6 bystanders in mass shooting at a trendy Doral bar?
The shooting was “reasonably foreseeable,” and the bar had “power to take the measures necessary to provide for their own security on the ...premises,” according to the lawsuit.
Martini Bar, the filing says, lacked properly trained security — and should have searched patrons for weapons. A recently hired security guard who hadn’t undergone adequate safety training was on duty on the day of the shooting, the suit alleges.
Acevedo and Romo also “suffered severe and debilitating emotional distress and mental anguish” that has since evolved into post-traumatic stress disorder, according to Pimentel’s filing.
READ MORE: Woman shot at Doral bar shares difficult recovery of loved ones; they sue bar, CityPlace
Since the shooting, several victims have filed negligence lawsuits against Martini Bar and CityPlace, including Jerez, whose brother and fiance were hospitalized with severe injuries.
“Had appropriate safety measures been in place, the lives of those present, including Officers Romo and Acevedo, would not have been put in peril,” Pimentel said in a statement.
