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Workplace Violence/Murder

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MikeysMom

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Texas

I'm asking on behalf of myself and several coworkers who are survivors of a workplace shooting that occurred 3 years ago, in which a supervisor was shot and killed by another employee right in front of us, and moments later killed himself. We were (and still are) a small, very close-knit group, and this was a very shocking, traumatic experience. 3 years later we are still experiencing emotional damage from this incident (depression, anxiety, alcoholism, irrational fears, nightmares, etc.), and as intelligent and educated people, we feel like we should be able to put this behind us. To this day, our employer (a very large corporation) has done absolutely nothing to improve security, awareness, employee relations, education, etc. The same problems exist now that brought about the incident 3 years ago.

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, no one ever believes that something like this will happen in their office or even in their city, and there is plenty of evidence of 'failure to act' on clues prior to the incident. But more unforgiveable is the company's failure to react. For example, after the shooting, the company refused to fund a security guard (the security station in the lobby already exists, but they quit funding a security guard several years ago), forcing individual groups (whose budgets are cut each year) to come up with the money to fund the security guard on their own, even though this corporation has an entire security department which is a major part of the organization. Furthermore, our group's management -- the very group which experienced the workplace violence -- refused to fund their share of the security guard cost.

Basically, we want to know if there is any legal basis for a civil suit, and/or if we have exhausted the statute of limitations at this point. None of us wants to 'cash in' on this terrible event, but the fact that our company refuses to 'right the wrong' or learn any kind of lesson from what we experienced just perpetuates our distress and makes us worry for the future.

Thanks for any insight.
 


S

shell007

Guest
MikeysMom said:
What is the name of your state? Texas

I'm asking on behalf of myself and several coworkers who are survivors of a workplace shooting that occurred 3 years ago, in which a supervisor was shot and killed by another employee right in front of us, and moments later killed himself. We were (and still are) a small, very close-knit group, and this was a very shocking, traumatic experience. 3 years later we are still experiencing emotional damage from this incident (depression, anxiety, alcoholism, irrational fears, nightmares, etc.), and as intelligent and educated people, we feel like we should be able to put this behind us. To this day, our employer (a very large corporation) has done absolutely nothing to improve security, awareness, employee relations, education, etc. The same problems exist now that brought about the incident 3 years ago.

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, no one ever believes that something like this will happen in their office or even in their city, and there is plenty of evidence of 'failure to act' on clues prior to the incident. But more unforgiveable is the company's failure to react. For example, after the shooting, the company refused to fund a security guard (the security station in the lobby already exists, but they quit funding a security guard several years ago), forcing individual groups (whose budgets are cut each year) to come up with the money to fund the security guard on their own, even though this corporation has an entire security department which is a major part of the organization. Furthermore, our group's management -- the very group which experienced the workplace violence -- refused to fund their share of the security guard cost.

Basically, we want to know if there is any legal basis for a civil suit, and/or if we have exhausted the statute of limitations at this point. None of us wants to 'cash in' on this terrible event, but the fact that our company refuses to 'right the wrong' or learn any kind of lesson from what we experienced just perpetuates our distress and makes us worry for the future.

Thanks for any insight.
Well....you can't bring a civil suit against the "shooter" because he/she is deceased.

Your employer did not cause the incident to take place, so...he/she should not be held responsible.

Your health insurance should cover whatever therapy/medical attention you need in order to recover from this horrible ordeal.

Who do you want to sue???
 

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