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Two lawsuits were filed Tuesday afternoon against Simon Property Group and its security services for Greenwood Park Mall alleging the 2022 mass shooting could have been prevented.
The lawsuits were filed in Marion Superior Court on behalf of Rosa Gomez, who survived the shooting, and the families of Victor Gomez, Pedro Pineda and Rosa Pineda, all of whom were killed in the mall’s food court on July 17, 2022.
The complaints allege wrongful death, gross negligence and neglect by both Simon Property Group and Allied Universal Security Services for not taking reasonable steps to prevent the shooting from occurring.
According to the complaints, no Allied personnel were in or near the mall’s food court at the time of the shooting, nor did they respond to provide aid in the minutes after Jonathan Sapirman was killed by legally armed bystander Elisjsha Dicken.
Sapirman had spent more than an hour in the restroom preparing to carry out the mass shooting, unchecked by security. He was wearing a black backpack containing an ammunition vest, a Sig Sauer model 400M rifle, a Smith and Wesson M&P15 rifle, a Glock model 33 handgun, six fully loaded 5.56 magazines and two Glock 33 magazines.
Decedent Plaintiff Victor Gomez, the first person murdered by Sapirman while exiting the men’s bathroom, had been waiting for his wife, Rosa, who was in the women’s restroom with their three minor children.
After shooting Victor, Sapirman fired more, injuring multiple people and killing Pedro and Rosa Pineda.
Rosa Gomez stayed hidden with their children in the women’s restroom when the shooting commenced. The family remained uncertain of Victor’s fate until they were evacuated from the mall, at which time all four had to walk past his body.
The complaints allege that if the dozens of video feeds throughout the parking lot and mall were adequately staffed and worked properly and if the mall and food court had been appropriately monitored by security, then the mass shooting should have been preventable.
According to the National Institute of Justice, mass shootings have increased in both frequency and severity.
The complaints request damages and a jury trial.
Attorneys with Cohen & Malad LLP Greg Laker and Andrea Simmons are representing the plaintiffs.
Laker compared the level of security at the Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis to the Greenwood Park Mall, stating they are not the same but should be.
“What I’d like to be able to see is that they have a heightened security presence at all (Simon) malls in and around Indianapolis so those shoppers can go there and feel safe,” Laker said.
He added that they believe Simon had time to discover Sapirman in the men’s restroom and were given warnings by shoppers.
“We look forward to learning all the details of that in our discovery,” Laker said.
Laker and Simmons are also representing several victims injured in the shooting in another lawsuit that was filed earlier this year.
Simon Property Group moved to dismiss that lawsuit but the trial court denied its motion. The group has appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals the decision to deny the motion.
Attorneys for Simon Property Group and Allied have not been listed on the court’s docket at this time.
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