An Atlanta jury has returned a nearly $70 million verdict to a young Navy veteran shot several times during a robbery and carjacking at a Kroger store, leading to multiple surgeries and leaving him paraplegic, reports Law.com. Plaintiff’s attorney Peter Law said the evidence was overwhelming that Kroger knew the store was located in an unsafe, high-crime area, yet failed to place any security guards in the parking lot where Laquan Taylor was robbed and shot. “There was testimony the guy who shot him had been hanging out around there before,” said Law. He said the defense’s highest offer to settle pretrial was for $1 million.
Taylor was 26 when he visited the Kroger in southeast Atlanta a little after 7 p.m. in January 2015. Victor Moore and Javon Ross were hanging around the parking lot. Moore and Ross allegedly demanded Taylor’s keys and wallet. After Taylor handed them over, Ross shot him between 11 and 14 times, and the pair left in his car. Taylor’s car was equipped with an OnStar security system, and responding officers were able to use it to track and disable the vehicle remotely. Ross and Moore are each serving 15-year sentences after pleading guilty. Taylor underwent 14 surgeries and has medical bills exceeding $4.5 million. Kroger argued that it was not responsible for Ross and Moore’s “heinous actions” and that Taylor suit was “mired in speculation that additional security measures could have prevented the subject criminal attack from occurring.” Law said jurors told him “it was a clear case, a strong case of negligence. Kroger had no security in the parking lot, and they knew they should have had it.”